Let the Flames Die
by Ariellel
Summary: Sawada Tsunayoshi, Vongola's soon-to-be mafia boss, thought his life wasn't stressful enough as it was. A few days after his return from time traveling, his dead great-great-great grandfather decides to pay him a visit. After Ten Years Later Arc.
1. Target 1: Fragile Sky

**Disclaimer:** I do not, in any way, own anything of _Katekyo Hitman Reborn!_ or any part of its characters, manga, or anime. Likewise, they do not belong to me. _Katekyo Hitman Reborn!_ (_KHR!_ for short) belongs to its rightful owner, Akira Amano. The only thing I do own is the plot that I am using in this story and nothing else. I am not making any money out of this, and this story is simply for my amusement and the enjoyment of others.

**Pairings:** Nothing in particular but feel free to interpret the actions among any characters as you will. If you squint real hard, you might be able to find subtle hints of any pairing (including Shonen Ai) throughout the story.

**Author's Note:** Hi, pleasure to meet everyone! Just thought I'd write up a story for _KHR!_ and try my hand at writing a fanfic. I'm pretty new to this so hopefully this story won't be so bad… At least, I hope so.

This will be based upon both the manga and anime by the way, so I'm just going to say sorry in advance if any part of it confuses you. This story will take place after the Ten Years Later Arc and at the start of the Shimon Arc. There may be hints from The Curse of the Rainbow Arc, but I don't know if I'll incorporate it in or not. I've made some changes in the events that happened in canon, but they'll be small, so you probably won't notice them. I will let you know what changes I've made after each chapter is finished.

I'd like to apologize in advance about not being able to update this story daily because of… Well, (you've all heard this excuse) life, school, homework, and all that. I'll try to update weekly or every few days. Er, maybe. Worst case scenario would be once a month or even next year, but I hope I won't have to resort to that. I'll try my best though!

If you spot any mistakes or want to give some constructive criticism on my writing, feel free to leave a review! Anyway, thank you for choosing to read this story, and I hope you enjoy it!

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><p><strong>Let the Flames Die<strong> (LTFD):

_Life had begun ever so peacefully._  
><em>Endings never existed as it went on and on.<em>  
><em>The story kept going on forever and ever.<em>

_The lives that was lost, the time that was taken,_  
><em>However much is gone, remember.<em>  
><em>Ease your mind of burdens, forget.<em>

_Friendship binds what we call trust._  
><em>Lies blind what is right before you.<em>  
><em>Accuse those who have done no wrong.<em>  
><em>Meet the truth, hurt yourself for it.<em>  
><em>Erase the hurt, prove the innocent.<em>  
><em>Summon the will burning from within.<em>

_Decide your path, dream of an absolution._  
><em>Ill intentions lie awake, unveil what I am and cope.<em>  
><em>Echoes resound wishes, grant them with your hope.<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Target 1: Fragile Sky<strong>

_The sky colors and engulfs all,_  
><em>Slight hesitation brings it to its downfall.<em>  
><em>Unable to save everyone,<em>  
><em>No one to save itself,<em>  
><em>An end comes to our dearest, most cherished sky.<em>

-2-7-

A boy was startled out of his sleep. He rose up from his bed, gasping for air and ridding the blanket off himself. He turned to glance at his alarm clock as he tried to catch his breath.

Two in the morning.

He groaned and fell back in bed with his mattress squeaking in protest. It was far too early for him to be up so why? Why wake up at such a time? And on a Monday morning, too?

As the boy reluctantly sat up, brown orbs nervously searched around the room. Something was wrong. Definitely wrong. But what? There was nothing that seemed out of place. His bedroom seemed to be in fine shape if you took into account that having clothes and snacks thrown about everywhere was _fine_. It didn't look like anyone had snuck in while he was sleeping (not that you could really tell from the mess), and so far, there weren't any traps to be seen that were set up by his tutor.

He was sure he was forgetting something. Just what was it? He knew it was important somehow, and if he didn't find out what it was, he was going to be in a world of hurt sometime soon. Besides, why was he still in his school uniform? Last time he checked, school clothes were for school, and pajamas were for bed. Not the other way around.

As he was busy thinking about his uniform, his eyes landed on his backpack where a piece of white was protruding just the slightest bit out of the zipper.

Wait, it couldn't be. Could it? He squinted his eyes at the paper. Then, the boy paled and palmed himself in the face at the realization.

It's too early to do homework. For goodness sake, he just wanted to get back to sleep! Not worry about some sheet of paper that could possibly be the only thing that could change his horrible grades. Not to mention that a certain tutor could kill him over it. For one single second in his life, he forgot about that.

Then, there was the sound of the click. Every single memory of a painful beating or form of torture courtesy of the owner of that wonderful click flooded back, ranging from getting hit by a one ton hammer directly on the head to being exploded out of his room for getting a math question wrong.

When the teen, rather regretfully, turned around to the sound, he was not expecting a gun to be pointing directly at his forehead. It goes to say that he let out a rather unmanly scream at the object and scrambled against the wall to get as far away as he can from it. Even though he saw the same green-colored gun almost everyday, he still couldn't help but be terribly afraid of it when it would just magically pop up in front of his face. It just wasn't normal.

"R-Reborn! Please don't shoot! I don't want to die yet!" He held his hands out and shook them from side to side. He couldn't die right now! He was too young to head up to the world beyond, and even if he did die, he wanted to at least see his long-time crush, Sasagawa Kyoko, one last time. Then again, having Kyoko see him die like this at the hands of his tutor at two in the morning would be pretty embarrassing and nonetheless weird.

The home tutor that was currently living with him was sent to teach the boy to become the tenth generation mafia boss of Vongola, possibly the largest mafia organization in all of Italy. Reborn was also, as he himself had claimed many times, the best hitman in the world, so what would you expect when you're around him? First thing you'd notice would be a gun pointing at you for no reason. Like right now.

"No-Good Tsuna, did you think I'd let you get away with not doing your homework?" Insert a glint in the eye of the baby-sized tutor Reborn and the boy couldn't help but shiver and squeak a reply bordering along the lines of 'no.' "Do it right now before I shoot."

And so, the fifteen-year-old boy nicknamed No-Good Tsuna, otherwise known as Sawada Tsunayoshi or just Tsuna for short, hopped out of his bed as fast as he could. However, along the way, his foot caught the end of his bed sheet, making his hazel eyes widen in surprise, and thus, made him fall headfirst to his carpeted floor. This did not please Reborn.

Not at all.

Now what was the natural reaction of Tsuna? It wasn't stop, drop, and roll for one thing because there obviously wasn't a fire. It wasn't like he had the guts to ever go against Reborn, so he couldn't stand up and fight back. Which leaves shutting his eyes, covering his head in a sad attempt to protect himself, and begging for mercy whilst still being in his awkward position.

"Don't shoot, don't shoot!" The boy couldn't help but try to sink in further into the floor to hide from any pain that was to be inflicted at any given moment. How he wished he could melt into the ground right there.

"Are you telling me what to do?" Reborn tipped his fedora down and smirked. He cocked the gun closer to his student's head, making the said student cower back again. The day his student was going to tell him what not to do and what to do was going to be the day when the brunet officially and willingly became Decimo. Might as well enjoy teasing the boy around before that time came. Moreover, teasing Tsuna was becoming a sort of hobby now.

"Eh? N-no, I'm not! No wait, Reborn!"

Too bad his tutor wasn't one of those people who listen before hearing a plea. Maybe he could've gotten five more seconds if Reborn was one. Maybe. Probably not. Oh well, what's done is done. Fear was stricken across Tsuna's face as he pleadingly looked at his tutor's face to stop.

"Die."

At the end of those words, the gun let out an audible bang that seemed to echo around the room. Regret flashed through Tsuna's eyes as he closed them shut. Fifteen years went down the drain all in the name of not doing his homework. What a waste.

"Hieeee!" Tsuna expected a bullet to have hit his forehead. He expected to be dead within one second flat.

There was a slight problem.

He wasn't dead. At least, he didn't _feel _like he was dead. There wasn't any pain or blood coming out or anything. He was sure he heard the gun go off, so where did the bullet land?

The brunet cracked one eyelid open and then the other. At first, he couldn't believe his eyes. It was just like that time when Reborn had disappeared after being shot by the Ten-Year bazooka. After Tsuna had eventually found him, the little tutor had tricked the poor boy into thinking that a Reborn-like dummy was the real thing while the actual Reborn was waiting until the very last moment to kick the brunet in the back of the head. This wasn't the first time either. Reborn had ditched Bianchi with a replica of him to avoid his very own wedding, too.

Looks like third time's the charm.

Reborn, or rather the fake Reborn, had his gun aimed at Tsuna, but instead of a bullet coming out, a sign with the word 'Bang!' stuck out of the gun. Slowly recollecting himself, Tsuna eyed the clone, and before he could even poke it, it spoke. Tsuna yelped and jumped back away from it.

"No-Good Tsuna, you probably don't remember this since you've been trying to recover from the shock of me erasing your stupid game file." Reborn paused, letting the information sink in.

"What?" Tsuna's eyes widened and he immediately raced for his game system and flipped it on along with the game he had been trying to complete last night. He repeatedly mashed the controller's buttons to skip the game's intro and go straight to the where the game files were.

He remembered now. He had been playing late into the night, and Reborn had snatched the controller from him and deleted his saved progress as punishment for not doing his homework. Then, Tsuna had foamed at the mouth and fainted, blacking out for the rest of the night. Thankfully, it wasn't much worse. If Reborn had completely annihilated his game system with bullet holes or by a hammer, Tsuna could swear he would've gone straight into a coma.

The brunet stared at the screen with a gaping mouth. It was like Reborn had previously said. The game file that he had spent countless hours upon hours trying to get everything without messing up so much was gone. The boy's eye twitched. His grip on the controller loosened, allowing for it to drop to the floor with a thud. He stared unbelievably at the screen. The fake Reborn frowned at this.

"But anyway," the fake Reborn pushed the 'Bang!' sign into his gun, "Mama, Bianchi, Fuuta, I-Pin, the idiot cow, and I are at a party that Mama was invited to." Tsuna slowly turned around with a whimpering face. "Don't give me that look. We won't be home until eight o'clock, so get to your homework or else." Reborn twirled his gun around. "All the answers better be right or you'll have bullet holes in your head the next time I see you."

Then just like that, the Reborn-like copy deflated like a balloon and flew out of the open window. Tsuna watched as it flew out and ended up exploding in a show of fireworks. Reborn was always one for a smashing exit.

The teen softly sighed and turned off his video game after closing the window. He rummaged through his backpack for his homework and a pencil all the while inwardly crying over his lost save file.

When he was about to turn on the lights, something prompted him to look around his room. The usual hammock that hung close by to the boy's bed was unoccupied. The comforting feeling (yet the boy wouldn't admit it) of having his tutor by his side was nowhere to be felt in his room. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he did feel kind of lonely without any of the usual chaos that would happen in his house. It hit him that this was the first time in a long time that he was finally home alone. No mom, no kids, and no Reborn. Just him.

The teen had an unsettling feeling and began to panic. What if what had happened last time happened again with the whole assassination attempt or even when some guy had waltzed into his room and pretended to be dead? He was sure he wouldn't be able to handle it. At least, not all by himself.

A knock came from his bedroom door and halted the boy's thoughts. His body froze in the middle of turning on the light switch. Who'd be up so early in the morning to knock on his door? Scratch that, who would even care enough to knock? It's not like his dad finally came home to visit him, right? His dad would have busted all the doors down if he wanted to do that. The man really didn't understand privacy all that much.

His mother and the kids who lived with him since the children didn't really have a family of their own, were currently at a party. There was no tutor in the hammock, no loud snoring courtesy of one of the children, and no wake up calls. Just that awkward knocking at his bedroom door. And that feeling of having butterflies in his stomach.

Who'd host a party for this long anyway?

The children, Lambo, Fuuta, and I-Pin were in good hands for the most part with his mother, Nana and his big-sister-like friend, Bianchi. Reborn went along with them as well, so they were going to be okay by themselves. His father, Iemitsu, rarely came home due to being part of the mafia, so there was no use in thinking he'd ever come back. Maybe he was just imaging things. No one in their right mind would knock at his door at this time.

And what of Tsuna himself? The one who was in his bedroom in a house that was practically devoid of life save for him? He had fainted after seeing that his game file was deleted before his eyes. He should've known that not doing his homework would make Reborn give out a harsh punishment. Now he was all alone with no one else around since everyone had left for some party that no one had asked if he wanted to come.

He really needed to be brave on his own, but it had only been a few days since he had returned from the future with his friends. The boy was still on high alert for any possible enemies to spring up from who knows where, like whatever was behind the door for example.

After a couple of more knocks, it all stopped. The boy held his breath as the slow rattle of his doorknob could be heard.

He hadn't locked it.

While the door began to slowly open, the boy dropped what he was holding and ran towards his desk to rummage through the drawers.

He couldn't handle this weird feeling in the room at all. It made him tense, too unsure of himself. Almost as if his mist guardian, Mukuro, was there, but this feeling was different. It was similar, but then again, it wasn't at the same time. Tsuna shook his head to clear his thoughts. The objects he was searching for had to be around somewhere. There were his mittens and pills, but where did his Vongola ring run off to?

The presence seemed to loom closer seeing as the door was now wide open. The boy's mind raced. He couldn't turn back. He couldn't find his ring. He had to deal with whatever he had.

When Tsuna grasped the items he needed, he quickly pulled on the white mittens embroidered in red with his favorite number, twenty-seven, and swallowed two blue round pills that came to be called his 'Dying Will Pills.' His mittens glowed and quickly changed to a pair of black clad gloves. Each glove had a large blue gem embedded in the middle with the mark of the Vongola in the center, indicating that the boy was indeed the tenth generation's one and only Vongola boss.

A bright orange flame lit up upon the boy's head. The flame flickered and licked the air greedily, growing in size as it did so. The flames were produced through his 'Dying Will', which in simpler terms, would be his resolution to keep him going, the reason why he would fight and was further refined by his life force. The stronger the will, the more pure the flames looked. It reflected what its controller was.

The owner of the brilliant flame knew how to control it, and if need be, could emit flames from his gloves and blow the whole surrounding area up, leaving a gaping hole where most of his neighborhood would be. Not that the thought had ever crossed Tsuna's mind.

The teen was kind and a bit small in stature for a fifteen-year-old. He was clumsy, a little too clumsy for one's taste to the point he was called a loser or no-good and even truthfully accepted the fact that he was the worst in both athletics and academics. In short, a failure.

Nevertheless, he was protective over his loved ones and greatly admired (only by people who know he was in the mafia) for both his 'Vongola Hyper Intuition' and interesting personality for one fit to be a mafia boss, especially for the Vongola. He still rejects himself of being a part of the mafia world though, promising that he would rather destroy the Vongola then accept the heritage whole heartedly.

The flame glowed enough to light up the intruder's face as the teen turned around to get a closer inspection. Tsuna's now orange piercing eyes that had transformed from his usual chocolate ones scanned the being that had entered into his room.

Tsuna blinked. Once, to make sure that what he was seeing wasn't his imagination. Twice, to double check he wasn't dreaming. On the third blink, Tsuna opened his mouth to speak but couldn't find the right words to say. Realizing he was being rude and probably looked like a tuna gaping for air, he quickly snapped his mouth shut.

Right there in front of him was none other than the one who had thrust the boy into the whole mafia family business. The one who had started the all too famous Vongola. The founder who was the cause of everything for happening right up to pretty much this point. It was the first generation Vongola boss himself: Vongola Primo.

The boy stared, bewildered at the sudden appearance of his great-great-great grandfather. What in the world was he doing here? At this time of day or for this matter, this time period? The boy couldn't help but stare at him. The Primo was right there in front of him! And the man didn't look the slightest bit fazed!

Dressed with a black mantle hanging loosely across his shoulders, golden chains strapped across his chest, and a pinstriped suit to go along with everything and you've got yourself the mafia boss of the first Vongola Famiglia. The man stared back at Tsuna without a care in the world as if him being there was not a problem at all. He didn't take into account that he was indeed a huge problem for his great-great-great grandson.

The Primo almost shared the same characteristics as the boy in front of him but had a few subtle differences here and there. Tsuna had chestnut brown hair whereas the man had vibrantly blond hair. Both had the same hairstyle with spikes poking out at various places but it was a mystery on how they both got their hair to stay in that particular hairstyle. Their heights were different with the Primo being about a foot or two taller than the boy. As for personality, they were almost one and the same though the Primo tended to be calmer while the teen was a bit of a wimp most of the time. Even their fighting techniques and weapons were similar. The Primo used gloves in battle; the boy used gloves in fights. If possible, they could've been mistaken as brothers if they had lived in the same timeline.

Obviously, the Primo would make out to be the big brother.

The man's golden orange eyes stared down at the young boy's, almost as if he were searching for something. The man held the stare down there for the both of them, taking away the boy's sanity or whatever was left from all the weird encounters and mafia business bit by bit.

Meanwhile, the boy's mind was spinning. How could this happen to him? This was beyond impossible! If the universe had a rulebook, it would have been blown up into pieces by now if it hadn't already been by Reborn or Byakuran. But lo and behold, here Primo was: the boy's ancestor and first sky guardian in the flesh. Not in spirit form and certainly not some sort of holographic figure. He was real. He was the real deal!

This was completely and utterly unfair.

Tsuna had already proven himself in the Vongola Inheritance Succession trials, and yet, here was the same exact man who had helped to issue them. He was hoping the appearance with Primo showing up at the boy's final battle, with a certain white-haired maniac who loved marshmallows going by the name of Byakuran, to encourage him on had been the last.

What did the teen ever do to deserve this? Why did the most absurd things always happen to him? It's not like he did something bad in the past and karma had come back to haunt him as far as he could tell. He just wanted to live in peace! Not deal with these this-is-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-all-know-it situations or you're-going-to-become-the-Decimo-even-though-you-don't-want-to-but-you-have-to-or-else kind of things! Oh, and let's not forget your-ancestor-appearing-out-of-the-blue-for-some-unknown-reason type of predicament!

As Tsuna was confusing himself altogether and getting more questions than answers, he didn't take notice of how tired Primo looked. His ancestor contemplated for a few seconds to let the brunet before him try to sort out his thoughts. It's not like he meant to give the teen a fright or anything. He just wanted to say something to the boy before he had to disappear off. Though the faces that Tsuna kept making did earn him a chuckle or two.

The Primo was the first to make a move, face switching to that of having no emotion. Tsuna snapped out of his musings, seeing that the Primo was doing something. The brunet hesitated but still looked into the other's eyes, trusting that whatever was about to happen would not do either of them any harm, both physically and mentally. Hopefully.

When the Primo had outstretched his hand in front for the boy to shake, the boy, thinking it wasn't too troublesome and could trust him, grasped the glove covered hand. Without the brunet's attention, the silver Roman numeral 'I' on the Primo's glove had begun to take to a different form.

What had seconds ago been the Primo's symbol of being from the Vongola's first generation had slowly formed into an 'N' instead. The teen's eyes widened upon the sight and snapped his head to the man's face to detect any emotions or shock. There was slim to none. The boy gripped his ancestor's hand tightly.

What was going on?

The Primo slowly shook his head as a sad smile crept up his face. A sad, gentle expression that inwardly frightened the teen. The brunet's flame had withered away all together, and hazel eyes, which had been reverted back from his orange ones, worriedly searched for what the root of the problem was.

The fellow Sky Guardian wasn't to be sad. If the Primo was sad, then the boy was sad. After all, they both shared the same fate of being the Sky Guardian for their mafia famiglias. A connection that bound two skies together.

"Decimo," the Primo started, addressing the teen by his mafia boss title. The boy could hear the crack in the other's voice. This wasn't right. The man cleared his throat and closed his eyes. "No, Sawada Tsunayoshi," the older sky guardian corrected himself.

Tsuna shook his head and in the process let go of the Primo's hand. This was all wrong. The Primo shouldn't sound like this. Ever. He was someone to look up to; someone to be trusted. He was calm and strong, never faltering. Hearing the Primo like this was unbelievable, heartbreaking even.

"It has been a short time since we had last seen each other, but there is something you must know." Tsuna stumbled back, eyes shut and ears unprepared to listen. He couldn't take it. That voice would break him. The Primo looked away with a tinge of amusement. "This… this may be for the best. For the both of us and our famiglias," the Primo quietly muttered to himself.

Tsuna, with much coaxing from his mind, glanced at the Primo. He stopped short and had to take a quick intake of air.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

The bedroom had slowly begun to disappear as if the illustrator for some story had decided a picture didn't fit well with a particular passage, so he or she just plainly got rid of it. Erasure.

Tsuna searched from side to side. Though his room was on the second floor of the house, the ground below had matched up to his floor, almost as if the first floor of the Sawada household or anything that was below the second floor simply vanished.

Tsuna looked up at the Primo.

The clock, which hung from the wall to his right and had told him countless times what time it was, had its hands spinning backwards at a speed that couldn't be seen. When the wall had completely ceased to exist, along with the boy's closet and belongings, the clock finally dropped to the ground with an earth shattering crash. A sudden urge to reach for the other sky guardian came to mind. Tsuna's intuition screamed for him not to do so, but the brunet ignored it. The teen took a step forward.

This just couldn't be happening.

His mind was too slow to process the situation. The whole place had turned to a barren, endless wasteland. Withered trees that were as black as coal sprouted up through the cracked ground, hanging its branches as if it were going to topple over to one side. Dead bodies were scattered everywhere. Each face was unrecognizable for the most part since Tsuna didn't take notice of them. He was focusing on Primo at the moment. Blood was spilled haphazardly in many areas.

What had happened to the Namimori he lived in?

Tsuna reached out to his ancestor. Funny, he didn't notice they were so far apart from each other.

With a few measly feet away, the worst happened.

It was as if the whole world went in slow motion, and time had begun to laugh and mock the boy. A rock was on his path, and Tsuna, being the clumsiest person in the world besides Dino, had to go and trip over it. His descent was anything but graceful. He fell flat on his face, but no injuries were acquired from it luckily.

A faint chuckle came from his ancestor as the Primo smirked almost as if in approval of his relative's clumsiness. Tsuna was about to make a comment but stopped short. Primo was disappearing. From his toes and going on upwards, his existence was slowly being erased by some untold force.

The brunet wouldn't let this happen. Tsuna shook his head. Sure, he was No-Good Tsuna, but he always had a determination to protect everyone close to him, anyone who held a connection to his life. He had to do something in this predicament. Anything at all to stop this madness, this inevitable madness.

With a frustrated grunt and push from the ground, Tsuna straightened himself up and held out his hand the same exact way the Primo had with him. He waited patiently.

The Primo softly smiled as silence descended between the two. The brunet could've sworn that the Primo had mouthed the words 'thank you', but maybe he had imagined it. The blonde's bangs covered whatever emotion his eyes held as he returned the gesture back to his great-great-great grandson. With a firm shake that felt like it lasted for eternity but in reality only lasted for a few minutes, the Primo opened his mouth again to speak.

"You have gone through the present with a will to protect others, a heart that can warm even the coldest of hearts, and an innocence that few in the mafia have. You have traveled to the future and have experienced many things that only you could have. Your determination, above all else, has brought you here on the path that you have chosen. There are repercussions to every action, I must admit, and it seems that I can only ask you of this. Would you care to listen?"

Tsuna furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head in question, urging the Primo to continue.

"The past… is in trouble." The Primo gritted his teeth and looked away.

"What?" Tsuna broke the handshake, losing the warmth that was radiating from the Primo's hand. The brunet gulped. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"It seems that something happening in the present is affecting the past due to the future being fixed," Tsuna's ancestor stated. "I don't know who or what force is causing the problem," the Primo turned away from Tsuna, "but all I do know is that a new famiglia that never existed in my time had appeared and targeted the Vongola. They had technology that far surpassed our time and had utterly destroyed my famiglia." The blonde balled his fists. "I know this is selfish of me to ask this of you, and I understand that this might even get you killed, but Vongola is suffering, and me being killed off early would not only end Vongola but also end my lifeline, meaning you wouldn't exist." The Primo turned around and gently grasped Tsuna's hand, placing an object that the teen was all too familiar with. "Would you be willing to part from the present and go to the past to save Vongola, Tsunayoshi?"

Tsuna remained quiet the entire time as his great-great-great grandfather spoke. He could sense the hardships the Primo had gone through, and if no one else could help him, who else would? The Primo was asking him of all people right at this very moment. It's true that he didn't like getting involved in mafia business, but he couldn't sit around and do nothing. He had to help whether he liked it or not. His life literally depended on it.

As the Primo's hand glided away from his, it revealed Tsuna's Vongola Ring of the Sky which sat silently in his hand. It felt warm in his hand.

Huh. So that's where his ring went.

" Yes." Tsuna looked seriously at the Primo's face and slid the ring onto his finger. Thankfully, he wasn't stuttering. He had to at least act reliable in front of the Primo. "How can I help?"

"The time will come when you will meet me once again. Your guardians may come if you wish to bring them. Though we have shared a conversation right now, I will not be able to recognize you when you come into the past for you have not been born yet, and I will not have the knowledge of the future of Vongola like I do now. Most importantly, you cannot let anyone, not even I, know you are the Decimo or that you possess sky flames." He placed his hand in his pocket and plucked out a golden pocket watch.

It snapped open with a click, and a flame matching both the Primo's and Tsuna's materialized. The only other eye-catching thing other than the orange flame and the picture of the Primo's famiglia was the clock itself. The hands were missing, and every Roman numeral that represented a number was now replaced with an 'N' except for 'XII'. You couldn't tell what time it was from looking at it, but the Primo could tell perfectly that his time was running out.

"Primo?" Tsuna's hand hovered above the Primo's shoulder, afraid that if he does so much as touch him, he'll disappear just as quickly or possibly shatter. The Primo seemed so fragile at the moment.

"My time is up. 'Till we meet again, Sawada Tsunayoshi." The Primo turned towards Tsuna and gingerly closed his pocket watch just as the 'XII' turned into an 'N.'

Time had come and gone as the rest of the Primo's body continued to disappear. The sight of it was so different from what Tsuna had seen, so unreal, so out of the ordinary. Tsuna felt his throat constrict. Hot tears welled up in his brown eyes, but even he couldn't tell why it started. The tears ended up blurring his vision of the Primo.

The Primo said nothing. His bright orange eyes had dulled as if he had already died on the inside. A smile donned his face. His body was just serving as an empty shell of what he once was.

The young Sky couldn't do anything.

Before Tsuna could reach out to his ancestor one last time, the Primo had up and left, leaving orange flames that swayed in the air. The flames swirled around Tsuna, and the teen couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the comforting warmth they offered. They danced this way and that before finally blowing themselves out.

Tsuna felt his face warming up, letting the tears fall. He sniffled. The soft laughter soon became sobs. Tsuna tried to wipe the tears away as he hiccupped.

Tsuna was going to do it again. He was going to risk everything to protect what he loved and cherished. He wasn't going to be a hero. He just didn't want to lose anyone else. He couldn't bring his guardians with him because they'd be in danger, and Tsuna couldn't handle seeing them hurt. He had to do it alone for the sake of his friends. Even though the thought of not being able to see everyone again because of time traveling came to mind, Tsuna wanted to protect their smiles, their happiness. The tears continued to fall as he shut his eyes.

Life wasn't fair.

When Tsuna had calmed himself down, chocolate brown eyes opened to take in his surroundings. The metallic smell of blood from the decaying bodies around made him feel queasy. Those bodies, which he had previously ignored, were his friends, enemies, and anyone the boy had met, known, or seen. His precious friends lied lifeless and strewn about. Even the Chihuahua that chased him around ever since he was a kid was seen in the piles of bodies. Tears threatened to fall again and the feeling of having to throw up came back. He covered his mouth.

Tsuna's intuition acted upon the boy and indicated for him to look up. What was seen was the blue sky that the teen had grown accustomed to. The sky, which enveloped and understood all whether it be the storm, the rain, the sun, the thunder, the clouds, or the mist, was high above him. It used to calm him down whenever he had the chance to take notice of it. It used to make him remember what he had been through and make him smile like there was no tomorrow. The sky watched over him, but right now, it was beyond recognition.

The sky looked the same, but it held some sort of darkness in it. Some sort of deep grief that only he could sense. It wasn't bright blue like that of a soothing ocean but more of a murky blue that plainly spelled out that everything was anything but all right. Dark clouds covered most of it, as if wrapping it up in a thick blanket, not letting the tiniest bit of light shine through.

Tsuna stared blankly at it. It momentarily reminded him of the Primo and himself. They were the sky that could accept and understand all its elements. If they were sad, then the sky was sad. If the sky was sad, the attributes it held were sad. Everything influenced the other in more ways than one for better or for worse. The sky affected other skies as well, bringing them together no matter how far apart they were.

Tsuna felt his knees buckle down, and he couldn't help but huddle himself up into a ball thereafter. New fresh tears stained his cheeks once more and dripped down to his shirt. Drowsiness slowly came over him. His eyelids gradually came to a close as he bobbed his head up and down to keep himself from falling asleep. The plus side was that he could no longer see that he was in the middle of a land where death and despair lived.

A piece of a memory sprang up of when he was at the Half Vongola Ring Battles. It was strange that he could remember it so well. Then again, it would be stranger if he couldn't since it wasn't something you could go on living and forget that easily.

It was the last battle to end everything, the Sky battle between Tsuna and the Varia boss Xanxus. Right before it could start, all of his and Xanxus' guardians were set up at designated points depending on what their ring was. Each guardian's ring was placed on a tower, and whoever could get the ring first could cure themselves of the poison that they received prior to the battle. Tsuna wanted to stop everything, but the Cervello pink-haired girls prohibited him from going after his friends. Even now, he could hear those words that one of them had said.

"Because the sky is the mission of the boss. The sun, lightning, storm, rain, mist, cloud. He influences all of them. He understands and accepts all of them. That is the sky's mission."

Tsuna wrapped his arms tighter around himself. He understood he was the sky. He tried to take care of his guardians as best as he could even if he wasn't trying to half the time.

They all just came to him. His Storm would cling to his side no matter what. His Rain would be there to calm everyone down. His Sun was there to brighten anyone's day up. His Cloud would do whatever he wanted to do because he never listened to anyone unless someone would fight him. His Mist, though there were two of them, would come at times when something serious was going on. His Lightning, the youngest and most annoying one of them all, was there to cause trouble and make life more difficult then it usually was. All of these combined were troublesome to deal with sometimes, but Tsuna had fun.

The brunet began to smile more and look forward to each day even if he had to deal with Reborn and everyone's antics. Before he had met any of them, before he had been shaping up to be the Vongola Decimo, he was the loser in the school. Everyone made fun of him because he was useless at everything. Math, science, history, literature, sports, you name it. If a team lost and he was a part of said team, they blamed it all on him and left him to clean the fields by himself. He was occasionally bullied whenever he trespassed upon a certain gang's territory, and the boy had zero to nil experience in fighting.

Whenever he tripped or fell, there was no hand to help him up. He never had any real friends. He never had any dreams. He didn't have much of anything. All he could ever do was run away. The only thing that kept him going to school was his small crush on the school's idol, which from retrospect, was pretty pathetic.

That is, until he met all his guardians. All the people he could call as his friends. Life became more meaningful, and he wouldn't have it any other way. He wanted to protect what he had, what he could keep. Those bonds were as essential to him as water and air. He couldn't live without any of them, but if he were still alone to this day, he wouldn't dare think of it. The 'what if's' should be left out. Tsuna just had to focus on what he had, what he as the sky held.

A smile graced his pale lips as he faced the sky.

Light was beginning to break through the darkness. Clouds were separating from each other and reverting back to the soft white that brought comfort to the teen. Tsuna's eyes widened at the sight of flower petals raining down. He looked around the area.

Everything the petals touched returned to life. The black trees that had previously not had an ounce of life were springing up, black chips of wood breaking off to reveal brown and pieces of white. Green leaves and flower buds appeared from each branch at a fast rate. The ground sprouted out with fluttering grass that reached up to Tsuna's ankles.

Tsuna stood up, mesmerized by the transformation of the world. Each petal created ripples like they were touching not the solid ground but water. When one petal came within arms reach, the brunet grabbed one and eyed it in curiosity. It was a sakura petal, the one that his cloud guardian, Hibari, hated. Just as Tsuna was about to let it go, the petal poofed into pink smoke. Upon reflex, the boy reeled back but still held the petal in his hand.

Well, what _was_ the petal.

It had turned into some sort of flower that Tsuna had never seen before. He wasn't one for flowers, so he didn't know what the name of it was. Three petals shot out from the middle of the stem, each pure in the color of white. The flower itself had a green stem with a long spear-like leaf attached. It was bent a bit at the end, making the flower face down in a sort of bell shape. Strangely, it reminded him of snow, but he couldn't put his finger on why it would make him think that.

A gust of wind blew, making his hair sway back and forth. Eventually, a piece of his hair poked his eye, and he quickly yelped. While he rubbed his eye with the hand that wasn't holding the flower, trying to make the soreness go away, the bodies that were scattered before had disappeared. When he turned around in confusion, his eyes landed on every person surrounding him, replacing the dead bodies. They were all smiling. Their mouths were moving but no words were uttered. Only silence.

"Everyone…" Tsuna chuckled, tightening his grip on his single flower to his chest. He tilted his head up and closed his eyes. He felt dizzy and could feel himself tumbling back. He didn't care though.

There was always hope. The sky wasn't to give up. Everyone was counting on him, and even though there was a lot of pressure on him, he could do it. With or without them, he could feel all the support they had given him.

Primo was the sky to his own famiglia, too. So were Uni, Byakuran, Dino, and all the Vongola bosses before him. They all went through something that only they could go through. Now, it was Tsuna's turn. It was time for the Decimo to shine. To be the sky that envelopes all. To have the Dying Will to take on everything. To be the hope that prevents everyone from getting hurt.

As the brunet fell back, feeling the ground collapse beneath him as he made contact with it, he let out a yawn on account of how tired he was starting to feel. So many things to do lay ahead of the brunet. A new adventure was to begin. Only one question plagued Tsuna's mind before he was consumed by the darkness of sleep, but deep within his heart, he already knew the answer.

If he held everything together as the sky's duty, what held the sky?

-2-7-

_Giving hope and life to none but one,_  
><em>In the rebirth of the sky, light shines forth.<em>  
><em>Only the chosen may exceed the creators' expectations and limitations.<em>  
><em>Together with comrades, ready yourself.<em>  
><em>To fight for the dying will, attack.<em>  
><em>Open the doors and run forward, never stopping to look back.<em>

* * *

><p><strong>*Target Acquired*<strong>

**Author's Note**: What did you think of it so far? I hope it wasn't confusing, but if you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask.

This chapter went through many revisions with parts being taken out or added in, seeing as this is the first chapter, and I wanted to make it look good. It took a while to get it to be satisfactory, but there's always this feeling that I could've done better, you know? I think it lost some potency as it started to near the end, but hey, maybe it's just me being hard on myself or something.

The poems that you see at the beginning and end of the chapter (the ones in italics) have something in common. Can you guess what it is?

Again, leave a review, whether it be of hate or love, if you have time to do so because your input helps me as a writer and affects the path of this story. I have a couple of the next chapters planned out. All I have to do is put it into words, so wish me luck!

Also, happy belated birthday, Tsuna! Hope you had a wonderful time with your family and friends!

Oh and before I forget to ask, can anyone guess what flower Tsuna's petal turned into?

Anyway, thanks for reading and be sure to tune in next time in the next chapter, er, target!

***Next Target: Coming Storm***


	2. Target 2: Coming Storm

**Disclaimer**: I don't own _KHR!_, and I never will. It rightfully belongs to Akira Amano, not me.

**Author's Note**: Hello, everyone! Before I say anything else, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, fav'd, and put this story on their alerts. I didn't know that the first chapter would be well received, so you could say that I'm pretty happy right now that some people have decided to read this story. I really appreciate it, I really do, and hopefully, this chapter won't let you guys down or make you disappointed! I was thinking I could reply back to the reviews I got here, so I hope it doesn't bother anyone.

_**Sora Nadeshiko**_: I'm glad it caught your interest! I know there are a ton of time travel fanfics in this fandom (trust me, I've read most of them), but it doesn't hurt to add another, right? Besides, I love time travel stories, so I thought maybe I could try writing my own for _KHR!_.

_**Taira-keimei**_: Thank you very much for the compliment! Haha, guilty as charged of being over descriptive here, I guess. Again, thanks for yet another compliment, and I hope you'll find this chapter a tad bit better than the first (though in my opinion, I think it's overly descriptive this time).

_**DiamondGoddess**_: Thank you! You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that this story is doing well. I really try to proofread my work several times after I've typed it up so that there won't be that many mistakes. I'm glad you're excited for the story, so yes, I'll keep trying my best at writing!

_**anydayanywhere**_: Thanks! You were close, but it was a snowdrop flower. You had some good guesses though!

_**Corvino the VII**_: Again, thanks! Well, here's the update. Enjoy!

_**Bluelup28**_: Like I've been saying with others, thanks! I'm happy that you love it, so here's the next chapter!

_**Baby Butler**_: Haha, thank you very much! Look no further for chapter 2 is here!

_**Rekishichizu**_: I think I've been saying thank you too much, but still, thanks for your input!

_**long live marshmallows**_: Ah, that's okay. I didn't think much people would take a guess, but I'll just post up the answers anyway.

**Answers to Questions from Target 1**:

1. Nobody guessed it, but the poems I made at the beginning and end of the chapters are sort of like acrostic poems (you make sentences out of the letters of a word or name). Last chapter, I made one for the title, Tsuna, and Giotto. I'll be doing this for the rest of the chapters, so you'll see more of them to come.

2. The flower that Tsuna's petal turned into was a snowdrop flower. In the language of flowers, I believe it signifies new beginnings, purity, and hope, but at the same time, can be regarded as an omen of death or incoming disaster.

Without further ado, thanks for taking your time to read this story, and I hope you'll enjoy it!

* * *

><p><strong>Target 2: Coming Storm<strong>

_Going against the odds and blowing everything away,_  
><em>Obstacles come; be the center of attack.<em>  
><em>Keep your precious close; never rest.<em>  
><em>United with these hands,<em>  
><em>Defeat the enemy with a relentless stream of attacks that never falter.<em>  
><em>Everything is up to the path chosen.<em>  
><em>Reborn into this day,<em>  
><em>Adversaries appear.<em>

-2-7-

He could hear faint whispers of children. Tsuna blinked his eyes open but then opted back to falling asleep. His hyper intuition acted on him to get up. The boy groaned. He really didn't feel like getting up. Couldn't he have like five more minutes or something?

"Gwahaha! Wake up, Stupid Tsuna!"

Tsuna grumbled to himself about the outburst of yelling. Why did that kid have to be so loud this early in the morning? He shifted a bit and held his blanket over his head, hoping to block out the noise and hide from whoever was calling him. He had locked his bedroom door, right?

Something that sounded like a door hitting against the wall was heard. Tsuna could imagine the force that had attacked his poor door and hoped with all he had that it hadn't been knocked off its hinges. Having it murdered now wouldn't do any good for the teen now would it? Not that it really helped in blocking out people who wanted to invade his privacy, but it kind of helped, right? Okay, maybe not.

"Tsuna, wake up! It's morning!"

Oh look, here comes the prime suspect for attempting to kill his door. Tsuna shuffled in his bed. He didn't want to deal with school, but if he didn't get up to go there on time, he'd have to deal with Namimori Middle School's Discipline Committee's leader, Hibari Kyoya. The boy shivered at the thought. He didn't want to get into any trouble or, as Hibari calls corporal punishment, get 'bitten to death'.

Before Tsuna could even attempt to get up after much consideration, a little five-year-old had made a leap and landed on Tsuna's stomach. Not really the most gentlest of ways of getting someone to wake up, Tsuna painfully noted. The child looked at him with an idiotic face, which Tsuna couldn't help but get annoyed at. The kid's eyes were shaped like crescents, his smile was stretched from one end of his face to the other, and snot was dripping down his nose. Yuck.

"All right, all right! I'm up, Lambo," Tsuna replied in between the gasps of air he tried to take. The little boy, Lambo, laughed hysterically and remarked on how pathetic Tsuna looked at his wake up call. The brunet carefully tried to pry the kid off himself, but Lambo was confined to wiggling his way out of Tsuna's grasp.

For a boy his age, Lambo held himself in high regards even if no one else would. It didn't help much that Lambo paraded around wearing a cow-print suit and had a huge black afro that made him look like the very definition of an idiot. His picture would be right beside the word, too, if it were looked up. He always stuffed grape candies, grenades, and useless stuff in his afro, but most importantly, there was also the Ten-Year Bazooka and the Lightning Vongola Ring. Tsuna pushed memories aside concerning the two objects and shook his head.

It looked like Lambo was trying so hard to get everyone to hate him for some apparent reason. Though the boy was possibly the stupidest child Tsuna had ever met, the kid was a part of his mafia famiglia and his actual family.

The famiglia that used to have Lambo under their wing, Tsuna remembered, was the Bovino Famiglia, which was another part of the mafia business that had an alliance with the Vongola. Ironically, the Italian word 'Bovino' meant cattle, also known as a cow, to which Tsuna had to suppress himself from rolling his eyes.

They were irresponsible and had left a kid to do whatever he wished at the age of five, in Tsuna's opinion. They even let the kid to handle explosives and the priceless yet dangerous Ten-Year Bazooka. Wasn't there something wrong with that?

The mentioned kid finally managed to jump out of Tsuna's hold and then proceeded to pull at Tsuna's arm, urging the tired brunet to get out of bed. Tsuna groggily stared at the five-year-old. Why did this boy always have to be so annoying but still be a bit likeable?

"Come on, Stupid Tsuna! Mama made breakfast!"

Tsuna ignored being called stupid, having been used to the little boy's shenanigans and name-calling and rubbed the sleep out of his brown eyes. A thought of what had occurred early in the morning resurfaced of seeing his mother, who the children in their house dubbed as Mama, lying on the ground, being carefully embraced and shielded from harm by his father. Red stained their bodies, and a few cuts and bruises could be seen on the lovey-dovey couple. This was them before they were replaced by his smiling parents.

Lambo kept hopping around, waiting impatiently until Tsuna hauled himself out of bed and out of the daze he was in from the sight of his parents in that indescribable state.

Another kid barged into his bedroom, jerking Tsuna out of his thoughts. It was I-Pin, a Chinese little girl, who was the same age as Lambo but was an assassin from Hong Kong. Her eyes were always squinting, due to her extreme nearsightedness or what, Tsuna hadn't a clue.

She had a rather large forehead that provided enough space to indicate the activation of her Pinzu-Timed Super Explosion caused whenever she was shy. If ever activated, a special countdown would sound, and Tsuna had the privilege of throwing the human bomb somewhere far away. It was complete and utter fun for him, shrieking like a girl and passing I-Pin around like he was playing Hot Potato. Oh, how he enjoyed those times where he had nearly had her self-destruct on him with her in his arms. At least he hadn't died because of it.

That is, not yet.

I-Pin hopped up on the window sill and opened the curtains to let the light in, causing Tsuna to shield his eyes from the sudden brightness in the room.

"Tsuna, time to get up!" The Chinese girl announced with a smile. She was considered a part of his famiglia and family, too. She continued to stay with the Sawada family, but she would rarely disappear to be with her master, Fon, who also happened to be an infant like Reborn. All in all, she was a sweet little child who proved to be helpful both around Tsuna's house and in combat.

"Fine, fine, I-Pin." Tsuna stretched and made his way out of the room, being pulled along by Lambo.

The teen, with tired eyes, checked his door for any damage done and sighed in relief that it still stood in one piece. For now, he grimly thought. At least the sign that was pinned on it had not fallen from any of the constant slams of his door. It was something he had kept since long ago and somewhat cherished. The sign was in the shape of a tuna fish that his parents had given to him as a joke because his name was so close to sounding like 'tuna'. He smiled fondly at it.

The trio headed downstairs to the kitchen. Not much of an incident went on while going down. Unless you took into account of the two kids going ahead of Tsuna since Lambo decided to act like a brat and make I-Pin angry and Tsuna tripping down the stairs.

Ah, the usual routine.

Lambo, having turned to his more immature side ran, laughing at I-Pin for being so slow, and I-Pin came after him with new vigor to give him a piece of her mind.

Oh well, kids will be kids.

Meanwhile, Tsuna groaned at the bottom of the twelve grueling steps of his beloved stairs, wishing that there had been something to cushion his fall. He had slipped on one step and ended up turning around in an attempt at grabbing anything.

Thin air was not what he had in mind.

The brunet, after bumping against the rest of the evil steps, painfully collided down against the floor, his head being the first to make the landing followed by the rest of his body.

This was so not his morning.

The kids continued on into the kitchen, not even noticing someone was hurt. Tsuna stayed in his position, staring at the ceiling. His head was throbbing, but that didn't amount to anything. In the mafia world, he had experienced more life threatening things to the point that he could have died. This fall was nothing, but he didn't have the urge to get up. He was too deep in thought.

The meeting he had with the Primo, which he supposed was a dream, troubled and made Tsuna sick to his stomach. He didn't feel like eating breakfast. He remembered wanting the Vongola Primo to smile. Anything to keep that sad expression away from his face.

Tsuna's vision blurred for a moment, and he had to firmly press his palm against his forehead, thinking it would help in his sudden nausea.

What was happening? Everything became hazy. The children's voices that once were so loud became inaudible.

He could hear voices. It didn't belong to just one person; no, there were many of them. Some were speaking at the same time while some echoed behind others. He could hear it in their voices. The way some stuttered and some were screaming or shouting.

Fear.

The owners of all these voices were afraid. Afraid of what, Tsuna didn't know, and he didn't want to find out. He was somewhat glad he couldn't see them for he had did not want a repeat of what he had experienced once before.

It was just like the time where he had to go through the Vongola Trial of Succession. He had been trapped in an enclosed space no thanks to Hibari's hedgehog, Roll, which had kept Tsuna in some sort of barrier until the poor teen had run out of air. That cursed Needle Sphere Form.

Tsuna could remember those moments when he thought it was the end. He was going to die. Short gasps of breath became shorter and shorter. He had tried so desperately to get out. He couldn't melt the impenetrable barrier. He couldn't smash his way out. He couldn't do anything. It was a hopeless situation. His flames, his resolution, weren't enough to get him out of such a predicament. What more could he do? What more could he wish for?

It was then that his Sky Vongola Ring had interrupted his thinking and projected him the horrors, or rather the sins, of what the past Vongola held. Each generation of sins piled on top of another. Those voices were there. Not the same ones that were speaking to Tsuna in present time but the way they sounded was the same. To make matters worse, there were scenes playing over and over in Tsuna's mind that haunted him.

All the events were so vivid that Tsuna thought he was actually there as a passerby. He could smell the smoke, could feel the heat, and most importantly, see the expressions that passed by each person's face. There were men in black suits, presumably from the Vongola Famiglia, and civilians.

People were begging for mercy, and it was never shown. Only blood was given up. Piercing screams shattered through. Flames cackled and engulfed bodies. Gunshots whistled through the air and hit their targets. People let out insane laughter and cried. They all tried to run, tried to get away, but it was no use. Those men in black would catch them sooner or later, and they'd all meet the same end.

Death.

Tears cascaded down his pale cheeks. Tsuna shut his eyes, not wanting to continue to see anything else, but the images penetrated through his mind. And they went on and on, not stopping for the brunet to catch his breath. They played like a broken record, and no matter how much he wanted them to stop, to come to an end, it wouldn't. He had to see it. He had to face what the Vongola had done.

Revenge, ambushes, eradication, and betrayal were all that could be seen, especially pain. Everyone was in pain. They had wanted to live. To be able to see the light of day of tomorrow and maybe get to see their families. There was probably a little child, perhaps a boy or girl, out there who was waiting patiently at home for their mother or father to return. When the parent would come home, the child would run up to them and be carefully embraced. It was so simple, but living in this dark world of the mafia, it was hard to achieve. Life could just disappear and slip away in the blink of an eye.

It's funny. You live for so long, but your death can be so quick, so sudden. A death can affect so many people, but how? Just how could one take another's life as if were nothing? That's why Tsuna never wanted to have anything to do with the mafia. He didn't want to stain his hands with someone's blood. Didn't want to be the blame or the one at fault for doing something terrible. Didn't want to kill or have the heavy responsibility of being a mafia boss. He didn't want anyone to die, including himself. Mafia life just wasn't for him.

Those sins, what use was it to repeat history with the same corruption? What had gone wrong? What had caused so much grief and hatred to spread?

Vongola, that's what.

Tsuna could remember the details of the scenes so clearly, so precisely, that it hurt. He had continued to cry, begging for the images and voices to stop. It was too much for the innocent teen to handle and take in all at once.

It was all a matter of time until the Vongola bosses of each generation showed themselves. At first, the nine of them were mere ghosts of who they were. Bodies were colored white, and faces were covered in masks of orange flames. Sky flames in fact. They had told Tsuna that for him to be granted great power, or at least get out of his prison, he had to have the resolution to inherit the past generations' history. The killing, the murder, the mistakes, everything.

Something snapped.

The tears stopped flowing. Tsuna looked at them, balling up his fist, and with great determination, had announced that he would wipe out the Vongola rather than accept their mistakes. Why let him take their burdens? They should've long done something about it themselves when they were alive! They had the time and power to fix their own self-destruction! Heck, he was only a child compared to them! He didn't need this kind of power to protect everyone he cared for.

A dizzy spell came over Tsuna, and he could've fainted at any second with the oxygen thinning. As he doubled over, losing a bit of his focus, a pair of hands held him up. Tsuna looked up in surprise.

Timoteo, otherwise known as the Vongola Nono, the ninth Vongola boss, and Tsuna's grandfather, brought the brunet back to consciousness. As soon as he knew that Tsuna was wide awake, the Nono returned to his position with the other bosses.

The world around Tsuna and the bosses was no longer pitch black but as blue as the sky. The other bosses revealed their faces, standing in a formation with one column of four to the left and another to the right of Tsuna. In the very front of the brunet sat his ancestor at a sort of throne: the one who started it all, Vongola Primo.

The brunet straightened up, feeling that the presence before him was one to respect and be admired. But somehow along the way, Tsuna felt his shoulders and posture sag in relaxation. Maybe it was just him, but even though the Primo at the moment seemed to be overpowering, deep down, he knew there was a kind soul much like his own.

Primo stood and strolled over to the brunet. As those footsteps came closer, the teen felt his heart beat faster.

The blonde stopped a few feet away and calmly looked at his hand. An orange flame as pure as Tsuna's burned from it. The man narrowed his eyes at the hand and spoke out loud, despite not directly looking at the brunet. He proclaimed Tsuna, the Decimo and tenth Vongola boss, to have a reasonable resolution worth being accepted. The resolution not to bring about destruction but to protect those that were cherished through acts that were not of evil intent.

The Primo continued to say that it was up to the young successor to decide on whether the Vongola would prosper or perish. The resolution to protect the ones he loved was enough of an answer for all the Sky Guardians. The crest of the Vongola family appeared below Tsuna and brightened, blinding the teen to all but white.

Before Tsuna could make sense of what was happening, he caught a faint glimpse of the Primo smiling at him. That was enough to assure the boy that things would be all right from there on.

The Succession had been done and over with, leaving Tsuna with his new power: the Version Vongola Ring Gloves and the exit out of the barrier. It had all felt like an illusion, a dream that was conjured up from the little oxygen remaining, but he had gained something from it. Something that reassured Tsuna that it hadn't all been a dream.

That was then though. Tsuna was here right now at the bottom of his stairs hearing all these voices again. Hadn't he had enough? Was this another trial being set up again? Tsuna covered his ears, trying to block all these noises. People had limits. Tsuna had already breached past his. Enough was simply enough.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" he chanted over and over. The voices wouldn't go away. One could even say that they got louder each time Tsuna commanded them to just shut up and leave. As quickly as it had started, the voices died down, leaving Tsuna in an awkward silence. Hadn't anyone heard him yelling? Didn't anyone care for his wellbeing?

His eyelids slowly flitted open. He didn't even notice they were shut the entire time. That's when he saw them. Young orange eyes stared back at his in concern. The brunet's breath hitched. The owner of those eyes was too close in proximity. Not only that, the other boy looked to be the splitting image of Vongola Primo in his younger years, probably around the same age as Tsuna. He was crouching by Tsuna, looking to see if the brunet had any injuries.

The stranger asked him something, but Tsuna couldn't understand a word the other said. A pang of a headache was coming on, and Tsuna had to sit up, hoping to ease it by doing so. The blonde boy helped the brunet up and looked him straight in the eyes.

Foreign sounds came through the other's mouth, jumbling the teen's mind further with the strange language. Tsuna had to hold down a blush. Personal space didn't seem to matter to the other teen. Didn't anyone ever teach the other to not talk to strangers or at least not make contact with them? A hand roamed to Tsuna's brown bangs to shift them away from his forehead. The stranger leaned down and put his forehead against Tsuna's. The contact made Tsuna wince back.

"U-um, what are you…?" the brunet spoke in Japanese. The other pulled back and muttered to himself, looking away. Then the boy turned back, speaking fluently in Japanese.

"Ah, are you alright? You're not hurt anywhere are you?" Tsuna shook his head, indicating that he was not injured at all. Just had a slight headache. The brunet was a bit surprised that the other could talk in the same language though. Maybe the blonde was bilingual?

Reborn, his tutor who he hadn't seen since morning, had been trying to teach Tsuna Italian since the Vongola originated in Italy. The brunet, being such a failure at speaking English at school, couldn't even begin to grasp Italian let alone speak it. He could understand a bit, but that was little to nothing. He was still the same No-Good Tsuna.

The brunet inspected his surroundings as he turned his head from side to side.

To his right? Trees. To his left? More trees. What about in front? Oh joy, trees. Let's not forget to look behind! Well, what do you know? Trees! Who would've guessed?

That was the only thing he could see. Just an endless sea of trees as far as the eye can see. It seemed like he was in some kind of clearing. How had he gotten here? He could've sworn he was in his house a few seconds ago.

The blonde kept an eye on him while Tsuna's face contorted from shock to pure fear. Too lost in staring at space, the Primo-look-alike tapped the other boy's shoulder to get his attention. Then came the high pitched shriek.

"Hieeeeee!"

The blonde blinked, his hand still hovering over the boy's shoulder. He didn't expect that to happen. In fact, he still couldn't make out how in the world this person, who looked almost like a long lost twin of his, could be out in the middle of the forest.

The Primo-look-alike had decided to take a relaxing walk through the woods nearby only to find another teen. The boy seemed to be in some sort of pain, so the blonde went about checking for any injuries or a possible fever.

That's when those mocha brown eyes stared back at his golden orange eyes. That's when all this trouble began.

"S-sorry! D-do you know where I am?" Tsuna flustered. He had to at least know where he was.

"You're in the woods near my house," the other boy assured him. The blonde boy furrowed his eyebrows in thought while he secretly held his suspicions as he stared back at Tsuna. "I don't think I've ever seen you around town before. Did you move in from Japan or something?"

Tsuna looked at him with wide eyes, frozen in place. Then it hit him. If what this blonde said was true, then he wasn't in Japan anymore. The gears in his head were processing what information he had and spoke without realizing.

"I'm not in… Japan?" Tsuna titled his head for emphasis and had a look of disbelief. He was baffled. The Primo-look-alike made a contemplating look as he observed the boy. Tsuna could see that the kid was starting to question the brunet's mentality if he wasn't already doing so.

The blonde boy was testing the brunet intruder. Could the strange boy be trusted? It looked like the brunet was pretending to not know anything, but the reactions he received seemed to be truly honest. Even his intuition told him the boy meant no harm in any way and didn't pose any danger. At least the brunet didn't seem like he was a part of a group of outlaws.

"No, you're by a small town in Italy. Are you lost?"

Tsuna gaped. He was in Italy of all places? That was far away. Far away from his home, friends, and family. How did he even get here? He shook his head. Maybe he was finally going crazy and losing his mind. He could feel himself shaking from the terror and stress building up. He pleadingly looked to the other teen and asked him to repeat those words again. The blonde looked confused and did what he was told. Tsuna clenched his fists.

"I was at home just a few seconds ago… H-how could I…" Tsuna murmured to himself. He looked down to his hands, bangs shadowing his feelings. The blonde stared at the trembling figure, trying to decide on whether he should bring the boy to the town's doctor or to his house. He decided to do the former since the boy looked like he needed some medical treatment, and besides, the doctor lives closer to the woods then to his house. He couldn't carry the boy in the state he was in though, so the blonde thought it'd be better if he brought the doctor to the boy. There weren't any dangerous animals around unless you wanted to label deer and rabbits as 'dangerous.'

"Hey, I'll go get a friend of mine. He's a doctor. You stay here, okay? I'll be right back." The blonde squeezed Tsuna's right shoulder to see if he could get a response.

Nothing.

The Primo-look-alike sighed and got up from his position. He spied around, making sure no one was around to hurt him or his 'twin.' He didn't want to admit it out loud, but the brunet really looked similar to him, but for as long as he could remember, he never had a brother, let alone a twin. He was an only child, so it was impossible to think like that.

As the blonde turned on his heels to go get some help, he spared one last glance at the other teen and cracked a small smile. A genuine one. He felt like he could trust whoever this person was even though that person dressed funny. Where were the brunet's suspenders anyway?

"By the way, I'm Giotto!" the blonde called out as he ran deep into the woods.

Tsuna's head snapped up at the sentence from the now disappearing blonde, unclenching his fists. Now that he thought about it, the other kid looked like his ancestor. Sure, the Primo and this person shared the same appearance, but they couldn't be the same person.

Right?

Tsuna groaned and fell back onto the soft ground. The thought of it really hurt his brain. He tried to push all the bad thoughts away and focus on what was happening now. The lingering smell of the wilderness greeted him as the wait for Giotto to come back began.

The brunet shuffled around and got comfortable in his position. The grass caressed along his face and tickled his cheeks. It had been a while since he felt at peace for once in his entire life. The trees swayed with the wind, and birds could be heard happily chirping in the background. Tsuna stared ahead.

The bright blue sky was in a view. It seemed much more calming than what was from his dream, almost freer. The clouds drifted aloof through it. The sun shined, leaving Tsuna to blink back a bit when he stared at it for too long. There was still that uncomfortable feeling in his stomach about the entirety of this situation. He was sure it wasn't because he was hungry. Wasn't having a bad dream enough?

Again, he began to feel a bit dizzy, and all the colors he could see were merging together. It was like a paintbrush was smudging over every spot in a painting, not caring if the art looked like nothing in particular. Just a bunch of hues mixed up with no logic behind it. The voices returned once more, but were a bit more caring and considerate of the teen's state of mind. They acted so friendly.

Tsuna closed his eyes but didn't care to cover up his ears. There was a voice saying that everything would be alright. He could feel the kindness and comfort behind the sweet nothings that were said. Then the voice spoke of something that sounded all too familiar. Something that was softly whispered in the brunet's ear. Tsuna just couldn't place his finger on it, but he could've sworn he heard the words from somewhere. Someone had said those important words to him but who?

"Our hour was engraved on the Ring."

Tsuna opened his eyes and found himself at the bottom of his stairs. He blinked a couple of times to let everything set in.

There weren't any trees around. He was home.

The brunet scrambled up and ran towards the kitchen. He gripped the door's frame and looked around the room. His mom, who he shared most of his looks from, was busy fixing up breakfast. The children plus a woman and baby were seated at the table. There was Lambo and I-Pin devouring their food. The cow-suit boy sat at one end of the table with the girl to his left. Tsuna let out a sigh of relief.

Another brunet, whose hair was lighter and shorter than Tsuna's, was seated beside I-Pin, eating his food peacefully and chuckling every once in a while when Lambo and I-Pin talked of something particularly funny. There were a few crumbs and pieces of food stuck around the ten-year-old's mouth that were later wiped away. The boy, Fuuta, noticed Tsuna and sent a heart warming smile and good morning to him. Tsuna smiled back.

Fuuta was like the little brother he never had. They weren't blood-related in any way. The people living in his house, not including his mom, weren't even related to him whatsoever and had stayed of their own accord, Fuuta being one of them.

The kid was known to be able to 'rank' a person with the help of his mysterious power. The young boy kept a book with all the rankings of the world, and if need be, he could get more rankings by using his power to communicate with the Ranking Planet, a place that accomplished what its name meant. The young boy had been targeted by the mafia because of his gift which they wanted to use it for evil intentions, but ever since the boy met Tsuna, who was quite different from the rest of the men in black, Fuuta had considered staying by the young Vongola's side.

Tsuna always had a way of befriending people. His group of friends plainly showed that there was something about the brunet that drew them in. All of them were crazy in their own way. One carried around dynamite; another could pitch a baseball so hard that it could leave a hole in the wall; one other was crazy about boxing, and the list goes on. But what else could you expect from Tsuna's mafia famiglia?

Across the table from I-Pin and Fuuta were two more people. Tsuna managed a lopsided smile when he saw his tutor, Reborn, doing fine. The baby, dressed in a black mafia suit and donned a matching fedora with a broad orange strip running around it, stared back at Tsuna and smirked that all knowing smirk that Tsuna knew all too well. Along the fedora hat sat a green chameleon, going by the name Leon, which stared back at the teen, too.

The glint in the infant's onyx eyes made Tsuna pale a bit, and then he realized something. He didn't finish his homework.

Oh, the humanity.

He knew the pain and suffering his so-called tutor loved to inflict onto him. That was punishment enough. There was a reason why the little baby was called the world's strongest hit man in the world. That and he was also a sadist, Tsuna mentally added. Reborn threw a spoon at his forehead, making the brunet stumble back from the impact. Did he forget to mention his tutor was a mind-reader? Or maybe Tsuna was easy to read like a book?

"Reborn!" A whine came from Tsuna, but nobody in the room took notice. Ah, the feeling of being ignored. Again. The brunet rubbed the sore spot on his forehead, hoping that a bruise wouldn't form anytime soon.

The other person mentioned at the table sitting beside his tutor was offering some food to Reborn and cooing over him. The woman was Reborn's fourth girlfriend. Shocking, isn't it? If you took into account that the baby isn't actually a baby and is a full grown adult that was shrunk because of some curse that befell him and a few others, then it seems pretty normal. That is, if that's how you can even define 'normal.'

The purplish-pink haired woman spared a look to Tsuna and went right back to talking to Reborn. Typical Bianchi. She was well-known in the mafia world as 'Poison Scorpion Bianchi.' The reason? Her cooking skills could turn ordinary food into poison and thus be used as a form of offense. If she ever offers you any food, either try to refuse outright or run away as fast as you can from her, especially if she happens to be angry at the time because you'll want to avoid eating her food if you want to live.

Bianchi stayed at Tsuna's home to spend time with her 'boyfriend' Reborn. She, at first, wanted to get rid of Tsuna because she thought the brunet got in the way of their 'love', but she began to get used to Reborn hanging out with the teen and had continued to stay by her lover's side. She had lightened up on the attempts to go after Tsuna's life, so she wasn't much of a threat, thankfully.

"No-Good Tsuna, you're going to be late," Tsuna's tutor said nonchalantly. Tsuna glanced at the clock and gasped. He really was going to be late if he didn't hurry, and if he didn't hurry, he was going to be bitten to death. If was going to be bitten to death, that would not bode very well.

Not at all for poor Tsuna.

Tsuna's mom finally noticed her son and offered him a plate of her specially cooked breakfast. She smiled and kissed his forehead, earning a faint blush from Tsuna and him muttering about being too old for such an action. She giggled and ushered him to hurry on to get to school. He sat at his seat at the table's end and began to eat away at the food, making sure that he didn't choke on it or anything. The thought of seeing the Primo resurfaced in his mind. He paused in his eating before excusing himself to go and change into his school uniform.

Reborn tipped his fedora down. Something was up with his student. He saw that blank look that had surfaced Tsuna's face for a split second. Just what was that? The only time he had ever seen that look was… never. Reborn had never seen that look for the time he knew Tsuna. There were looks of terror, sure, and then some of happiness and rarely even anger, but not that look. He'd have to do some sneaking around and spying today it seems.

Traveling up the stairs, which Tsuna had dreaded, was much better than down. Of course, tripping up the stairs would be just as embarrassing as the other way around. Fortunately, Tsuna managed to go up to his room with no problems. He ran in and obtained his uniform from his closet and hurriedly went to the bathroom to get a quick shower and change out of his clothes.

He froze while he was in the middle of his shower and face palmed himself. The tiny water droplets cascaded down and around his body as he drew a heavy sigh. He had left the blonde boy without as much as a goodbye. Giotto was probably panicking over his disappearance right about now. Why couldn't things go smoothly for once in his life?

And just how did he end up in that forest? If he had traveled via time, he could've blamed the Ten-Year Bazooka, but the weapon had never hit him. So how did it happen? How in the world did he end up in Italy one minute and then back in Japan the next? A pang was felt in his head. Okay, no more thinking too much lest he black out from over thinking.

Hah, Tsuna over thinking. Like that could ever happen.

As he was about to turn off the water, he noticed the Sky Vongola Ring was still worn around his finger. It shimmered a bit under the glint of the water. Oh, he forgot to take it off before he showered. Not that it really mattered but he should probably take care of it better. It did belong to all the past generation Vongola bosses after all.

Just as Tsuna got out of the shower and went to get a hold of a towel, he tripped over the bathtub's edge and fell, pulling the towel along with him. Pain coursed through Tsuna's chin as it had met the brunt of the floor. He silently cried to himself.

Yup, today definitely didn't seem to look all that bright.

As soon as he got dressed in his school uniform consisting of a short white sleeved shirt layered with a navy blue vest complete with a blue tie and went down the stairs, he looked at a nearby clock.

8:25.

A series of curses went through the brunet's mind, but he didn't voice them out. Five minutes. The clock left him with only five minutes until the school bell would ring.

The long minute hand moved to the left with a tick. 8:26.

Now he had four minutes! He _had_ to make a run for it. Tsuna grabbed his school bag and bid farewell to his family, stuffing his sock-covered feet into his shoes and rushing out the door, not hearing what his mom had shouted. The only thing he could make out was to be careful on his way to school.

"Aw, and I was going to tell him about the new students transferring to his school," she pouted as she stood at the doorway to the Sawada household. Lambo ran up to her, while holding a bowl of rice, and tugged on her skirt.

"Mama, what's a group of transfer students? Is it a new flavor of candy?" the idiot cow sputtered out. Tsuna's mom, Nana, only smiled and crouched down to pat his fluffy afro. She chuckled.

"Oh no, Lambo, it's not something you can eat! Remember the earthquake that happened a little while ago all around the world?"

Lambo nodded his head at the question. Though Lambo didn't know or care about the event, the earthquake was caused by Tsuna and his group of friends when they had returned from the future. Something about their return had had an effect on the world. They had messed with time, and the earthquake was one of the consequences.

Nana, the one who didn't have a clue about her son's trip through time, continued, "Since the school in Shimon fears that another earthquake may hit their area and endanger the safety of their students, they let the them transfer over to Namimori where we're pretty much free of earthquakes. Besides, the Shimon Middle School has had to go under construction because of the earthquake." She smiled happily at her little explanation.

On the other hand, Lambo continued on eating his rice, once again ignorant of what was going on around him.

X-X-X

"Almost there!" Tsuna cheered himself on. He was running at full speed, not taking any stops to catch his breath. He had to get to school on time or else face the consequences of a certain Hibari Kyoya. He skidded around a corner and continued to make a dash towards his destination. From out of the corner of his eye, he spotted two figures closing in on him. He could see a touch of silver on one of them while the other had black. The two caught up to him.

"Good morning, Tenth!" The silver-haired teenager greeted him. Tsuna managed to reply back between his gasps of breath. The other teen seemed elated at the simple response and smiled back. The tall teen always called him Tenth, even though Tsuna felt embarrassed by the nickname. It was the name which was born from him being the Tenth Vongola boss, and as the most loyal of friends, the silver-haired teen had dubbed him as the Tenth.

"Yo, Tsuna!" Another person ran alongside Tsuna and offered one of his usual grins. Tsuna was about to respond back, but the silver-haired teen beside him scoffed and retorted back at the other teen.

"Oi, don't talk so casually to the Tenth like that, baseball freak! Show some respect!" Tsuna sweat dropped at the boy's reaction. The two of them were always like that. Arguing and bickering over something so small. Well, it was usually the silver-haired one who did most of the yelling. The black-haired boy rose his hands up in defense and nervously laughed, attempting to calm down the other.

"Ah, G-Gokudera," Tsuna turned to the silver-haired teen and waited for the other to cool down.

Gokudera Hayato was known to have an attitude against people who weren't close to him. He was like a lone wolf, seeming to look cool and be a bad boy on the outside. You could even describe his personality as a raging storm. To top it off, he was smart, an amazing pianist, and an expert at handling explosives. The silver-haired teen was even known as 'Smoking Bomb Hayato' in the mafia world. If you got to know him well enough, you could see he was actually kind and would give anything to protect those who meant a lot to him. Being number one on his list to protect was Tsuna.

The small brunet had changed his life the day Tsuna had saved him from the mistake of almost accidentally killing himself with his own explosives. Tsuna, without knowing, had a way with understanding people and changing them through the times he spent with that person.

Gokudera, being very much dedicated to someone who saved his life, used to do so much that he would die protecting Tsuna, but the brunet didn't want that. He wanted Gokudera to be a friend and famiglia member who would try his hardest to stay alive and not throw away his life away so easily because people cared about him. Gokudera, through many hardships and fights, came to understand the concept somewhat and had continued on the path to being the best right hand man deemed worthy enough of the Vongola's tenth boss.

The silver-haired teen gave a glare to the raven-haired boy before shifting his olive green eyes to Tsuna. Gokudera's attitude apparently did a one-eighty, and he was now gladly giving his boss his attention.

"Y-Yamamoto," Tsuna stated urgently. The raven-haired teen, who was much taller than the other two, Yamamoto Takeshi, tilted his head at the brunet in response. Tsuna had an alarmed look take over his face. "We're going to be late!" he squeaked out loud to his two best friends.

All at once, the trio of boys picked up in speed and in the end, managed to get to class on time as soon as the bell had rung. A cloud of dust was left in their wake. Tsuna slumped in his chair and let his head drop onto his desk, exhausted at their mad run. Gokudera and Yamamoto went about their daily routine in class as if they hadn't run like their lives depended on it. The brunet couldn't help but sigh at his two friends as he turned to look at them. They were really incredible to withstand every problem thrown at them.

Since the teacher was still not in the room, the students were free to roam around and talk with one another for the time being. Gokudera and Yamamoto came over to Tsuna's desk, which had been positioned at a nearby window. That's when Gokudera cracked his knuckles, wearing a mischievous grin.

"Tenth! If any of those transfer students dare to show any ounce of disrespect towards you, then I, as your right hand man, will take care of them!" Tsuna lifted his head and looked confusedly at Gokudera. He hadn't heard a thing about any transfer students. Yamamoto came and patted Gokudera's shoulders, earning yet another glare and growl from the silver-haired teen. Why couldn't Gokudera ever get along with Yamamoto? They were like some old married couple who bickered too much in a single day.

"Haha, I'm actually looking forward to meeting the transfer students! You never know, there might be someone who likes baseball, right?" Yamamoto's light brown eyes showed he was all too excited. He never ceased to be positive. Well, there were times when he was serious, but that was a rarity.

Yamamoto was as calm as rain falling from the sky, washing away everything like a blessed. The raven-haired teen could not only calm himself but others around him also. You could say he was a voice of reason and wisdom though his naiveté clouded his judgment sometimes. He was one who loved baseball and the art of swordsmanship. The raven-haired boy was always being his cheerful self, ever so modest and being easy to talk to or ask a favor from. Tsuna was thankful he had a friend and ally like that. It helped to balance out his life with all these mafia troubles that would arise every now and then.

But sometimes, it hurt to see Yamamoto smile when he didn't have to. It hurt Tsuna to see him use a façade for the sake of others. To keep everyone happy or to try to break an argument. Still, trying to imagine a Yamamoto who was serious all the time would be difficult.

Where there was a smile, there was Yamamoto.

Two more people walked up to the three boys, one being Tsuna's long time crush and the other being his crush's friend. He shuffled in his seat to face all his friends. Everyone sure was crowding around him today, weren't they?

"I hope we can make some new friends!"

Tsuna blushed at the statement and the smile directed at him. He inwardly remarked on how one of the girls, Sasagawa Kyoko, looked so cute with her smile. The girl brushed a lock of her golden brown hair behind her ear and giggled. The smile was something he loved about her, and apart from her personality and looks, he couldn't help but be happy to be in the same classroom as the school's idol.

Kyoko, though she might have been a burden, was helpful at times. She was strong to withstand the truth when she found out Tsuna was in the mafia, and she accepted him for who he was afterwards. She was a girl who anyone would be lucky to have.

Hey, maybe he had a chance. Maybe he didn't. Who knows?

"Well, I hope they'll be mature and not at all childish like someone I know," the other girl said. Long trails of dark brown hair framed her face and also ran down her back. Kurokawa Hana looked away in disgust and frowned at the memory of a certain cow child roaming around Tsuna's household. She hated children to the point that she would get hives when she was annoyed by them. Ironically, she had hated children ever since she herself was a child.

Hana was observant and smart, probably not as smart as the genius Gokudera but that was beside the point. She was Kyoko's best friend but knew nothing of her friend's involvement in the mafia. She still held suspicions about the going-ons and activities within Tsuna's circle of friends. She knew of Tsuna's little crush on Kyoko, too but still couldn't entrust her to an unreliable guy like Sawada, the name that she always referred to the brunet by.

"W-we're getting transfer students?" Tsuna curiously asked, scratching his cheek in embarrassment since it was obvious he was the only one who didn't know about it. Hana furrowed her eyebrows and sighed.

"The whole school knows about it, but it's not surprising that you weren't informed. Still the same No-Good Tsuna like always."

"How dare you speak to Tenth like that! I'll blow you up!" Gokudera slid his hands in his pockets and pulled out a pack of dynamite. Before he could light them up, Yamamoto got in between the two.

"Haha, calm down, you two. Everything's alright!" He cheerfully laughed afterwards and showed off his famous smile. Too bad it didn't calm the bomber down. More like irritated him.

"Move out of the way, baseball freak!"

"Hana, you shouldn't have called Tsuna No-Good," Kyoko scolded her best friend. Hana looked away, blushing at feeling like she was being treated like a child.

"G-Gokudera put your dynamite away! She didn't mean it!" Gokudera looked up at the sound of his boss's voice and complied with it. He still wanted to blow that girl up for insulting the Tenth though.

Just then, before any of his friends could further get a word in about their discussion on the new transfer students, the door slid open, and the teacher walked in.

"Settle down, everyone!" All the students scrambled back to their assigned seats. "Ahem, as you all know, several students from Shimon Middle School will be arriving today to attend here. It just so happens that two of those students will be joining this class. Be nice to them, alright?"

Murmurs could be heard throughout the class at the thought of what the new students would be like. The teacher had to once again silence them with a wave of his hand. "Now, without further ado, I'll have them introduce themselves." He motioned to the door, which had been left a crack open. The crack was getting wider as a hand clutched the door's side and a foot stepped into the room. "Come on in, Kozato and Shi-"

"My name is Shitt P.! Call me 'Shitopi!'" A girl walked in, hands on her hips. Two inflatable tubes hung around her, making a crisscross across her body to form something that resembled an 'X'. She wore sunglasses even though it wasn't technically all that bright in the classroom. A tight suit complete with a fur-lined hoodie was worn, making it even seem stranger to the students that the new girl would wear something so warm when it was just as hot outside. Her clothes weren't even staying within the dress code! A tuft of purple hair peeked out from underneath the girl's hoodie, and the people in the room couldn't help but gape at her. This girl was just asking for trouble from the Disciplinary Committee.

"My talent is Hakko! My favorite food is pi-pu, pu, pu, piiiii…!" Quietness followed after her outburst.

Gokudera whipped out his glasses without a moment's notice. The silver-haired teen was so caught up in his thoughts of the new student that he didn't even tie his short hair up in a ponytail to indicate that he was in his 'thinking mode.'

He deducted that this 'Shitopi' person wasn't human but was an alien. You heard right, an alien. Gokudera came to the conclusion, or at least he was assuming, that she was a U.M.A.! English translation for Unidentified Mysterious Animal.

He pulled out his handy dandy notebook and pen and began to scribble down notes on his newfound discovery. Gokudera was pretty much obsessed with the mysteries and phenomena of the world and universe. Once he got started on something on the topic, he wasn't going to stop until he got all the information he could get. Even Tsuna would have a bit of trouble trying to snap his best friend out of it.

Tsuna shifted his gaze away from the now classified U.M.A. and watched Gokudera mutter under his breath about something. Knowing him though, Tsuna could only guess at what Gokudera was saying. The brunet peeked over to Yamamoto, Kyoko, and Hana, seeing that they were just as confused over Shitt P.'s actions as he and the rest of the class were. Even her name was weird.

"A-ah, Shitt P., very good… Er, next up is you." The teacher turned to the young red-headed boy standing beside the new girl.

The young boy remained quiet for a while, nervously shifting his foot around and clutching his hand tightly over his backpack's strap. His head was bent a bit down, hiding his eyes and face from view.

"I'm Kozato Enma…" the boy mumbled under his breath. His voice was scratchy, probably because he wasn't used to talking so much. The students leaned forward over their desks to make out what he had said.

"Couldn't quite hear you there." The teacher leaned in closer, cupping a hand around his ear to hear better.

"Kozato Enma…" the redhead repeated again except in a much lower voice, hinting a bit of timidity. The grip on his backpack tightened further. This went unnoticed by the teacher.

"Speak up!" Enma flinched at the sudden command and rise of the man's volume. Couldn't the teacher take a hint? The redhead didn't want to speak up.

The poor teen found the floor to be more interesting than looking over to his soon-to-be-classmates. He remained quiet for the rest of the time. Students whispered to one another, saying that he was the type to be picked on a lot. The type that was usually gloomy and quiet. No one would probably want to be his friend.

Well, there was _one _person who the redhead could be compatible with.

Tsuna couldn't help but gaze at Enma and be reminded of himself before the mafia world entered into his life. The brunet could hear the conversations shared among his classmates, and he was sure Enma could hear them as well. They were kind of loud.

It seemed that none of the two paid any mind to their classmates, having already gotten used to it. People could talk behind their backs all they wanted to, and they wouldn't mind that much. It was just something that you'd get use to after years of having the same thing done.

Tsuna leaned against his right cheek as he inspected the new boy. The boy looked exactly like bully material. Tsuna smiled a bit. Maybe he could relate to this person, having been the target of bullies himself.

The redhead's head rose up a little, letting Tsuna see the crimson eyes that were hiding. A few bandages were littered across the boy's face. It looked like the boy had gotten into numerous fights previously. Tsuna continued to stare, and Enma returned the showdown back. They both eyed each other, and yet, no one in the class noticed. Too busy spreading rumors about the new students.

Before the brunet or redhead knew it, Tsuna had leaned too far against his desk's edge and ended up slipping from his beloved chair and falling onto his side. The crash resounded around the room with the shuffle of his desk, the screeching of his chair moving, and his body earning a wonderful sound from the floor. Awkwardness was what anyone could describe the young brunet's situation. One by one though, the students couldn't help but stifle a giggle or laugh and remark at how Tsuna was still the same No-Good Tsuna. The same loser he had always been with all his slip-ups and epic fails at life.

The brunet flushed a tomato red from his embarrassment and scrambled back to his seat as quickly as possible. He buried his face in his hands to hold back the growing blush. Shitt P. ignored what was happening and talked out loud to herself about some sort of nonsense. The teacher sighed and shook his head, disappointed. Gokudera immediately jumped from his seat, scattering his notes around, and asked if the Tenth was all right all the while glaring daggers at everyone to stop laughing. Yamamoto and Kyoko got up from their seats and asked how Tsuna was. Hana just huffed in her seat and looked away, remarking on how Sawada will and always will be Sawada.

Tsuna was like that sometimes. He could suddenly be the center of everyone's attention or break whatever tension was hanging around. The laughter died down a bit as the teacher tried to quiet down the class and get everyone back into their seats.

The brunet took a peek through his fingers to look at Enma, seeing for the first time that the gloomy kid was chuckling a bit. Just a little smile was etched on the redhead's lips as Enma tried to cover his mouth. It suited him more rather than that upsetting frown. At least, Tsuna was able to make someone smile today.

Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.

'Maybe' just didn't cut it. An explosion came from outside. It wasn't enough to crack the windows but was enough to alert everyone of a danger approaching them. Cackling laughter that could only belong to one person made Tsuna want to bang his head against his desk. Only one person could laugh like that, ruin Tsuna's day, and turn everything upside down. All at the same exact time.

Well, so much for having a good day.

-2-7-

_Get ready for everything to explode._

* * *

><p><strong>*Target Acquired*<strong>

**Author's Note**: And that's a wrap! How was it? If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Reviews are welcome, too.

I based this on the manga where Enma and the Shimon family are starting to show up, which is probably why some of the dialogue and events seem familiar. I'm going to have the Shimon play a somewhat different role from canon though. I added a bit of my own flair with the Succession trial with Tsuna, but it doesn't differ that much from the manga or anime. Giotto managed to show up, too, but Tsuna doesn't know exactly whether or not he's the Vongola Primo or not. Next chapter is planned out already, so I'll have it up within a few days, but it may take a while since I have homework and projects to do.

And so, thank you for reading, and be here in time for the new target!

***Next Target: Annoying Lightning***


	3. Target 3: Annoying Lightning

**Disclaimer**: Amano Akira, which is obviously not me, owns _Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (KHR!)_. I just own this plot, and that's pretty much it. No money is involved in any way.

**Author's Note**: Good evening, good morning, or good afternoon to everyone reading this! Haha, sorry if I kept any of you waiting! Been drowning in school work and whatnot so I had little free time to work on this chapter over the course of the week. That aside, I'd like to again thank everyone who reviewed, put this story on the alerts or favorites, and took their time to read the previous chapters! So, thank you very much! I've responded to everyone's reviews below if you want to read them.

_**akiruisora: **_Ah, that's okay if you don't know what to say in your review. Getting praise or criticism is alright with me, so don't get too hung up if you can't think of what to type in. Anyway, I'll continue to do my best!

_**Corvino the VII: **_Haha, the explosions, huh? Well, there are some more explosions coming in this chapter, so I hope you enjoy your reading!

_**Rekishichizu: **_I usually do something interesting about my stories, and for this one (Let the Flames Die), I ended up using poems. Yeah, poor G gets only one line! Makes you wonder what his real name is though, right? Hm, let's see if your guess is spot on about the explosives in this chapter. Ah, I can't reveal any spoilers, so I'll just say that the past changing does involve the Shimon Famiglia. No, thank you for reading, and don't worry, your review doesn't sound off at all!

_**anydayanywhere: **_Thanks, and here's the next update coming right at ya!

_**Fai Senri: **_Thank you! Well, here's the next chapter! Happy reading!

_**Bluelup28: **_Thank you very much! As for your question, you could say that Tsuna can _technically _go to the past, but not by his own will. He doesn't have time-traveling powers if that's what you're thinking, but _something _is aiding him to allow him to time-travel. Technically.

_**Dark Gothic Lolita: **_(For Chapter 1) You really mean that? I-I mean, I didn't think my first chapter would turn out that well, so when I first read my reviews, it was a shock to find out that it turned out great. Well, Tsuna's life isn't exactly what you call _normal_, so even though a lot goes on in just one day of his life, you can't help but think that even though it's hard to be in charge of all his friends, he can't be without them. Our bonds and friendships are things we treasure, whether deeply or not at all. Oh, and thank you for the kind review!

(For Chapter 2) Success, I made someone laugh! I didn't mean to put in humor, but all the words and sarcasm I put into this chapter just came to me, you know? I didn't actually think anyone would laugh because I thought this story was somewhat on the serious (maybe even boring) side, but you proved me wrong, and that's a good thing)! Again, thanks for the good luck on school and for my story! I appreciate it a lot!

_**long live marshmallows: **_Let's see if I can explain this properly (hopefully I won't confuse you any further). After hearing some voices that reminded Tsuna of the Vongola Succession, he opens his eyes only to be transported to the past where Giotto is about the same age as him (and before Giotto started the Vongola). It's sort of like when you wake up in the morning and you find yourself in a new place that you're unfamiliar with (e.g. being kidnapped). Of course, when Tsuna got a headache after Giotto had left, Tsuna was magically sent back to his own time. As for _how _Tsuna traveled back in time for a few minutes and then back home, I can't reveal that because then I'd be spoiling you. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

_**Taira-keimei: **_That's alright! Reviews are welcome at anytime, so you don't have to be sorry for being late. Haha, I do tend to be overly descriptive, and I know that it's a big flaw especially on FanFiction. Everyone knows the series so well, so me repeating information that readers already know is a turnoff. I took that into consideration, I assure you, but your review was very helpful and insightful. For that I tip my hat off to you (if I had one, that is). There's always room for improvement, so I'll happily take into account of your criticism and opinion. I'll try to tweak my style a bit in the meantime. Thank you very much for the review, and though I didn't read it until after I finished this chapter, hopefully this chapter will be more to your liking!

Now that that's finished with, enjoy your reading!

* * *

><p><strong>Target 3: Annoying Lightning<strong>

_Landing in a strange land, the lightning has flashed._  
><em>Another mess to clean up, the damage has been done.<em>  
><em>Mishaps begin as time is rewound.<em>  
><em>Believe yourself through the lies.<em>  
><em>Open your eyes to the one and only truth.<em>

-2-7-

One look outside was all Tsuna could handle. It was all the more reason for him to hide and cower under his desk and wish everything was all a dream. Sadly, all he could do was scoot his desk away from the window and hide behind his notebook, which he had grabbed from inside his desk instantly, hoping to get the image of two children running around the school grounds out of his head. If they weren't identified to be related to him whatsoever, no one would suspect the explosions and childish laughter were technically part of his fault. As long as no one saw them, Tsuna would be alright.

"Hey, are those kids out there?"

Clearly, luck wasn't on Tsuna's side today. The students followed the direction of where a guy, who had asked the daring question, was pointing at. Some rushed to the windows to get a better look and gaped. Pairs of eyes landed on two children playing around the school grounds, but questionably, there looked to be a grenade in one child's hand and a dumpling in the other child's. No one really paid attention to the two objects but instead went to ask about what the children were wearing.

"Pfft, what kind of costumes are those?" One student remarked as he tried to hold in a chuckle.

"Well, that one looks kind of like a zebra, and the other one is wearing some Chinese clothes, I believe." Another teen pointed out as he saw the two individuals run through the smoke produced from the grenades.

"You should get your eyes checked! That doesn't look like a zebra at all. Maybe a panda?" A girl countered.

"I'd say it's obviously a cow." Someone blurted out.

"Ah, isn't that Lambo and I-Pin, Tsuna?"

Oh, if only Kyoko hadn't added 'Tsuna' to the end of the question. The boy could feel eyes burning through him now, and he literally wanted to disappear right then and there. Memories of the two children once entering their classroom on Class Visitation Day resurfaced in everyone's minds once they had a closer look at the kids. He could imagine what was going through their minds, most likely about how everything that's Sawada-related was bad. Sure, Tsuna could pretty much make a sports team lose and ruin almost any class project, but it's not like anybody got hurt besides himself, right? People were angry at him, yes, but was he considered a danger? Not really.

"I-it's probably some other kids, Kyoko," Tsuna lied through his teeth as he laughed nervously. "A-anyway, I'm not really feeling well so," Tsuna backed out of his seat and motioned to get out of the classroom. Kyoko looked concerned and reached out a hand, almost as if she was going to comfort him, not taking heed to the looks of jealously spreading across the faces of the boys in the classroom

"Tsuna?" Concern flashed through her honey eyes.

As he backed up from everyone, he squeaked when he bumped into the new redhead student and muttered a quick sorry. Enma brushed it off as nothing. Already at the door, Yamamoto and Gokudera both got up from their seats to ask Tsuna if he needed help to get to the nurse's office but were quickly cut off.

"I'll be fine, guys, I-I just have to–"

This time, another explosion was set off but was much louder than the last. The room rattled from the impact, making a few students jump back or scream. Tsuna propped himself against the doorframe for balance. He could hear the far-off bawling of a little five-year-old that probably no one else but he could notice. He had to do something. Something right now.

"Our memories were engraved on the Ring."

That voice. It was that voice again from this morning. He could hear it.

Tsuna, without delay, rushed out the door, ignoring the outcries from his teacher and friends to come back where it was safe. Another explosive went off, and the wall that was right across his classroom blew up. Shards of glass lay scattered, and a large chunk of the wall just so happened to block off the door that Tsuna had run out of. That was too close for comfort. If Tsuna had still been standing there, he would've been buried under all that debris.

The brunet shook his head to snap himself from the thought. Even though he could hear Gokudera crying out for him asking if he was alright, he turned on his heels and took off through the hallways. His Storm Guardian had been ignored, leaving the silver-haired boy to go hysterical over what had happened to the Tenth, thinking that the worst occurred.

There was something off about today.

The brunet ran past windows and classrooms. Some students were out and about staring out the windows dumbfounded. A few were taking pictures or videotaping with their cell phones all the while laughing that whoever was playing this 'joke' was going to be in major trouble, even expelled. Those that were smart enough to realize that this was all very real and not at all some sort of joke were busying themselves trying to escape.

More explosions were set off outside, and Tsuna could see through the windows that the smoke produced from the grenades was spreading everywhere. As if on cue while he was running through a deserted hallway, one explosion came a little too close to the window Tsuna was near. Bright light masked his vision, and the sound radiating from it silenced Tsuna's surprised shout.

When the brunet came to, maybe a few seconds or minutes later, the windows laid shattered into pieces, and some parts of the wall had crumbled down. The teen came out unscathed from the event, but he winced at the damage that had been done.

Oh, boy. The school's Discipline Committee was going to have to repair that, and Hibari wasn't going to be a happy camper. Anyone who messed with the prefect's school or anything in Namimori was going to die, definitely. Tsuna had to hurry up or else Lambo was fated to get bitten to death. I-Pin would most likely not be harmed since Hibari didn't have anything against her, and she never made him irritated. Lucky girl.

The brunet scampered off his butt and proceeded to go down the hall and down the stairs. The nurse's office came into view when he landed on the next floor, but he sped past it. No, he wasn't planning on going towards the nurse's office. He had to find them right now.

He had to find Lambo and I-Pin.

Tsuna went down more and more stairs, not caring if the students and teachers around gave him weird looks. The rhythmic thumps of his shoes became quieter as the volume of the explosions increased. The loudness fell on deaf ears as the brunet could only hear the beating of his heart and the gasps of breath he had to take as he ran.

Why didn't the school have an elevator? It would've made things much easier.

When he had finally reached the first floor, he noticed that the doors leading outside the school were left ajar. Tsuna pushed past them and looked around, perking his senses to find the source of the disturbance of Namimori Middle School.

Someone crying rather loudly could be heard from his right. If he remembered correctly, the children should still be somewhere around the place near his classroom. He ran in the direction which he believed would lead him to the children. Hopefully, his sense of direction would work just this once.

Smoke. There was too much smoke covering the area. Tsuna coughed at the first intake and instinctively covered his mouth. After all this was over, the brunet was sure to give the children a good scolding on why they shouldn't come to his school and bring their weapons. First off, they were supposed to stay home with his mom. Secondly, Hibari was going to bite them to death for disturbing the peace, and lastly, the two just weren't allowed to be here. They were children, no older than five, and they couldn't merely waltz around the school's grounds like it was their playground!

Tsuna brushed away the dark fog with a swipe of his hand and called out the kids' names, hoping that they would respond back.

"Lambo! I-Pin!" The boy coughed as more of the smoke entered through his lungs. What kind of explosives could set off this kind of dark smoke? Lambo's grenades shouldn't be able to make this kind of hazardous smoke. Usually there was coughing involved but not enough that would actually make you hack. Tsuna covered his mouth again and continued his search. If Lambo was crying, it would've made it much easier to find the two, but there was nothing. No sound, no nothing. Just more explosives, believed to be Lambo's grenades, going off.

A rustle of noise was heard to his left, and Tsuna moved closer to the sound. He was met with a shadow that closely resembled Gokudera's figure. The only difference was the height. It seemed a tad taller than his friend.

A shout came from the shadow, but it was in a completely different language as far as the teen could tell. From Tsuna's view, something glinted from the figure's hand. As the mysterious person drew closer, approaching at an alarming rate towards him, the brunet could start making out the object. The teen's face paled, and his eyes widened. Tsuna wanted to get out of the way but found himself rooted to the spot.

A gun. The guy was holding a gun of all things!

Where in the world did Gokudera get a gun?

Before the brunet could even attempt at running away, the shadow picked up in speed, but instead of stopping, it looked like it was going to tackle the teen.

No wait, it _was_ going to tackle him!

Whoever it was that was running towards the brunet yelled out, holding the gun out and aiming it right at Tsuna. Instantly, the finger tightened on the trigger, and the sound of the gun going off was heard.

Rather than feeling some sort of burning sensation or any kind of pain on any part of his body, Tsuna felt an arm wrap around his waist and pull him and whoever had a hold of him to the ground just in time as yet another bullet was fired. The teen's heart was beating so fast from the sudden tackle and thought of getting an early death sentence that he couldn't think straight let alone breathe. He felt his savior quickly stand up from their position.

When Tsuna stared up at the person standing before him, he could smell the faint scent of cigarette smoke even through all the smoke covering the area. The brunet heard his rescuer mutter something under his breath and wipe the sweat off his forehead in the process. The brunet stiffly got up and took in the other's profile.

This person wasn't Gokudera.

The figure was the same man who had fired off the first bullet and tackled him to the ground. He was a redhead, just like Enma, a lighter shade that could easily be mistaken for pink, but was almost in the same hairdo as Gokudera. Tsuna grimaced when the scarlet orbs turned in his direction, but he mistook the man for glaring at him. Tsuna's gaze drifted to the direction behind him and came upon a body, which the redhead had begun to walk to.

The stranger on the ground that was dressed in a black suit had blood seeping out from a couple of bullet wounds at his legs. The stranger laid there on the ground, spouting out something at the incoming redhead and striving to reach for the gun he had dropped a few inches away. As soon as the Gokudera clone had towered over the other person's body, he gave a swift kick to the gun, making it spin away. The black-suited man gave the redhead a glare of his own, but suddenly smiled. Something shined in the man's hand as he was pulling something out of his pocket.

Tsuna watched with a thin frown forming upon his lips. What was–?

As if predicting what would happen next, the Gokudera clone jumped back just when the man had swiftly thrown a knife in his direction. The sharp object changed trajectory as it began to fall to the ground, narrowly missing Tsuna's foot and making the said brunet shriek back in alarm. The redhead hissed at the man for trying to bring an innocent victim into their fight and gave a low kick to the enemy's stomach, causing the man to fly a few feet back and cough out in pain.

The redhead was years older than the burnet, and the similarities between the man and Tsuna's silver-headed best friend were uncanny. If they stood right next to each other, you could easily mistake them for brothers. More likely even father and son. The only major outward quality of the man that easily stood out was the tattoo on his face. It trailed along like bare tree branches stretching out around the right half of his face. It came in a red color that matched the man's hair, eyes, and even complimented his clothes.

Tsuna could remember that this particular man was around for the Vongola Inheritance Succession trials. He was the Storm Guardian of the first generation, if the brunet remembered correctly. It calmed him a bit, knowing that there was someone he knew, but what in the world was the redhead doing here in Namimori?

If only he could remember the redhead's name. It was only made up of one letter from the English alphabet, but which letter was it? Tsuna, for the umpteenth time in his life, couldn't even begin to remember anything related to English, making him frustrated for not remembering. This was one of his predecessor's guardians for goodness sake! Reborn would kill him for not remembering any of the past Vongola guardians.

If his tutor was here, that is.

Tsuna was abruptly snapped out of his thoughts when the Storm Guardian shuffled away from the wounded man and grabbed the brunet's wrist. He started to drag Tsuna in an unknown direction. The teen stumbled over his own feet in surprise as the redhead quickened his pace. Noticing this, the Gokudera clone only tightened his grip and fastened their speed to run through the smoke covered area.

A few stray bullets came at the pair, but thanks to the man's quick reflexes and Tsuna's ability to get a sense of where the bullets were coming from, they were able to avoid most of the attacks. Needless to say, the redhead was impressed that the brunet could keep up with him and dodge any oncoming projectiles. The only downside to dragging the small teen was that every time a bullet whizzed by, the brunet would keep yelling and shouting in Japanese so loud that he had wished he could plug his ears from the constant screaming. This easily gave away their position, making the amount of shots fired at them increase.

The young teen proved to be interesting regardless, but there was a nagging feeling about how similar the boy and his boss were. They both looked so alike that the redhead had come to the conclusion that they were related somehow. As far as he knew, his boss wasn't married, having an affair with anybody, or had any relatives that resembled him so much like this kid did.

It couldn't be that his boss would do something inappropriate with a woman without telling him, right? The redhead furrowed his eyebrows in thought. He was going to have a talk with his boss and get things straight as soon as the battle with the enemy famiglia was over. The redhead would not and will not accept the fact that his boss, his best friend, had a kid without him knowing.

That is, if that were the case. He could be jumping to conclusions for all he knew. For one thing, the brunet looked to be, at the most, thirteen or fourteen, and his boss was already around his twenties. So, if we subtract this from that, his boss would have had to have had this brunet sometime before he was ten!

Okay, he'll just ask his boss later to clear things up before any other weird possibilities were to pop up.

The redhead stopped in front of a rundown building and pushed the brunet to get inside. The Storm Guardian shouted at Tsuna and rushed back out to the smoke covered battlefield. Tsuna stood dumbstruck. He was about to follow after the man, but a hand solemnly held him in place. He let out a scream, swiping the hand away and turning to see who had touched him. Out of impulse, Tsuna shouted the only thing that came out of his mind right at that moment.

"Adult Lambo?"

N-X-N

The force of more explosions rattled the whole school building. Some rubble coming out from the outside had blocked the front of the classroom door, delaying anyone from escaping out of the room. Students tried to find a safe spot away from all the debris and windows in hope of not getting injured. Some were even crying or trying to call for help through their cell phones. A couple of boys were still looking out the windows, almost like they were transfixed on all the smoke.

Never had there been a situation at Namimori Middle School that posted any danger on the students or school staff. Never.

"That stupid cow! How could he mess the school up so badly? If the Tenth is hurt because of this, I'm gonna murder that little–!" Gokudera yelled, scaring the rest of the students even more. A few backed up into a corner or huddled into a ball. The silver-headed teen just couldn't stay calm. Not without knowing how the Tenth was faring. If only he had run after the small brunet, maybe he wouldn't be worried sick. He reached into his pockets for his packs of dynamite. Gokudera could never leave home without them.

"Now, now, Gokudera. Calm down. I'm just as worried as you are about Tsuna." Yamamoto put a hand on Gokudera's shoulder and smiled brightly. Perhaps too brightly for the baseball player's usual smile. "We just have to believe that he's okay. We both know that he can take care of himself."

"Shut up! As the Tenth's right hand man, I should always be right beside him when there's danger! I have to be there to protect him!" The silver-headed teen swiped away Yamamoto's hand. This drew attention from the class, and a few gasps were exchanged from the class. "If I can't, I don't deserve to even be by his side!"

A jumble of dynamite was pulled out of his pockets. Students and teacher alike cowered away from the explosives in the teen's hand though there were some that were oblivious that the dynamites were real. Yamamoto just frowned, having already been used to his friend's outbursts and temper.

"Gokudera," the baseball player started. His voice had taken a tone down from his happy-go-luckiness to the serious voice that was once used when the two had had an argument during the future. They were paired up for one mission, and truth be told, they had trouble working as a team. Gokudera noticed this right off the bat but still taunted Yamamoto to make a move.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way!" Gokudera pronounced each word impatiently as if he were trying to teach a child to say the alphabet. Patience was never his best quality though. Neither were children or baseball freaks in this case.

Gokudera took out a pack of cigarettes and pulled out one straight from the box with his mouth. The teacher was about to protest that smoking was not permitted on the school grounds, but the silver-headed teen sent back a fearsome glare, silencing any further talk of not smoking or of any form of confiscation or punishment. The silver-head took out his lighter, lighting his cigarette in the process. The dynamites were next freshly lit up with Gokudera's burning cigarette and were aimed to hit the classroom's door to clear up an exit.

The only thing in the way was one Yamamoto Takeshi.

"Are you so stupid that I have to spell it out for you?" Gokudera hissed, getting ready to punch the baseball-loving teen's lights out if he didn't move out of his way.

"I'm coming with you," Yamamoto stubbornly said, eyes narrowing. Gokudera was taken aback.

"What?" he sputtered, almost dropping his cigarette.

"I care about Tsuna about as much as you do, so don't think you're going out there alone. We're all best friends aren't we?" the raven-haired teen explained with a small smile. Gokudera scowled, knowing that the other was telling the truth. Honestly, he should have known this would happen, but what was he supposed to do? Be an agreeable person with no backbone? Be all happy and sappy? No. Just no. That would be way out of character.

"Tch, fine. But I'm only doing this because the Tenth would've wanted it," the silver-head muttered. The tips of the dynamite were quickly disappearing. There was no time to lose.

It was now or never.

"Haha, thanks." Yamamoto meant it. His eyes shined with happiness at the response he received. He wasn't going to be the one who would be left behind while Tsuna was off. He'd always be there right beside his friends, whether they were out walking about or playing their mafia game. The trio was, after all, like the three musketeers. As the saying goes, 'All for one, and one for all.'

The two stood together a couple of feet away from the classroom door. Gokudera threw his dynamite at his intended target with the spread of his arms. A gust of wind and smoke blew through the room at the explosion, making both hair and clothes flitter about. Kids screamed, but the teacher was still having trouble comprehending everything. Dynamite? Tenth? Just what in the world was going on?

"Holy–! Those were actually real dynamite?" One kid exclaimed, falling on his behind from the shock. Everyone else paled.

"I thought he was just bluffing about blowing the door up!" A girl held her head and shook it in disbelief.

As Gokudera and Yamamoto began to make their way to the exit, not caring about the smoke or rubble in the way or of their classmates, the teacher stood up from his crouching position.

"Wait, just where do you think you two are going?" He stumbled through, still shaken at the thought of more explosives happening in the building. He could handle tonfas from the Discipline Committee, but dynamite? He wouldn't tolerate this. His yelling did stop the two students from leaving the room at least.

"None of your business!" Obviously Gokudera was still ticked off. The teacher shrank back. The students stared at Gokudera and Yamamoto in either awe or fear. The raging fangirls looked worriedly at the two.

"Gokudera!" A couple of girls screamed.

"Yamamoto!" Another group of girls followed after.

"Gokudera, Yamamoto." The soft voice prompted the two boys to stop and look back. Kyoko looked at them with pleading eyes, almost as if she was giving them a puppy look, but then she shook her head and offered a small smile. "Please bring Tsuna back safely, okay?"

"Kyoko…" Hana looked at her best friend and put a hand on her shoulder. Even though she was just as shocked as everybody else in the classroom and had no idea what was going on, Hana couldn't help but try to comfort Kyoko. If Sawada was able to make her best friend this worried, she was going to beat the boy up if he ever made her cry. That kid better return without any harm done to him.

Gokudera and Yamamoto only nodded their heads in response to Kyoko's wish before turning around to their exit.

"Come on, baseball freak! We have to find the Tenth!" Gokudera shouted as he rushed out of the classroom. Yamamoto looked back at his classmates and showed a thumbs up to everyone. A smile decorated his face as he waved farewell to everyone, whom still were numb from all the information they were trying to digest.

Tenth referred to No-Good Tsuna. Gokudera had real dynamite on him. Yamamoto was actually serious for one moment. Boom! There goes an explosion. An exit was made. The school's idol, Kyoko, is worried over No-Good Tsuna. What has the world come to?

"Coming, coming," the raven-haired teen answered back in a sing-song happy tone as he followed after the bomber, not noticing the mess he and Gokudera had made with the class's minds.

X-X-X

Still standing at the front of the classroom and long forgotten, Enma and Shitt P. watched as Gokudera and Yamamoto left. Well, Enma mostly kept and eye on them while Shitt P. stared at the ceiling and went about counting how many specks of dots there were. The redhead's eyes narrowed a bit as he looked around the classroom.

The teacher was huddled in a corner. How irresponsible. He could've had more backbone when he was conversing with the silver-haired teen. And the students? Cowering and gossiping about what had just happened. Some were babbling and pointing at the spots where their two fellow classmates had been, still in complete disbelief. Their sentences weren't even coherent. A boring and predictable bunch they are.

Absolutely pathetic.

Shrugging the whole situation as if it were nothing because he was used to it, Enma proceeded to head out through the exit that the so-called 'Gokudera' had blown up. He turned back to look at Shitt P.

Nobody noticed the two or didn't want to pay attention to whatever was happening. Everything was so shocking, so confusing at the time. It was hard to think straight, let alone do anything about their current predicament. They were dizzy from everything happening so fast.

"Shitopi, let's go." Enma gestured his head towards the exit. Shitt P. caught the movement in time after snapping her head from the ceiling. She smiled and skipped after the boy.

"'Kay!" It was the only word she had said before the two departed after Gokudera and Yamamoto unnoticed.

X-X-X

While chaos raged down below, somewhere on top the roof of Namimori Middle School, a certain prefect and his yellow canary bird gazed down upon the black smoke that surrounded the school.

_His_ school.

The boy's steel black eyes narrowed at the sight. Nobody would dare ruin his school, and nobody would dare keep his school under this disgusting fog. Whoever did this was going to be bitten to death.

"Herbivores…" he said, a tinge of anger visible in it. It was rare for him to sound angry, save for the times he met the illusionist going by the name of Rokudo Mukuro or anybody whose head resembled that of a pineapple, but that was irrelevant. It was even rarer for him not to sense the presence of an approaching person.

Like right now for instance.

"Excuse me, would you happen to be the disciplinary committee captain, Hibari Kyoya?" A girl had appeared a few feet behind the boy she had referred to, standing at attention. The prefect turned around, not in surprise and not in shock for emotions were null and void when it came to him, but if possible, his eyes dangerously narrowed even more.

Who'd dare to intrude in on his personal space?

"Who are you?" It wasn't a matter on whether or not the unknown girl could answer the question but rather if she would answer to the prefect's command. As in, 'Tell me who you are, or I'll bite you to death,' would have suited Hibari more to his speech, but he was not in the mood. He needed an answer, and he needed it right that very instant.

"My name is Suzuki Adelheid, a third year transfer student from Shimon Middle School," she had stated with no hesitation. Hibari eyed the girl, almost as if she interested him a bit. Not in a romantic kind of way but because she had some fight in her. Not many people had stood up to the prefect, and at the same time, not many had talked to him without at least stuttering or hesitating a few times in conversation. Most usually ran away at the sight of him in the hallways.

"State your business," the perfect said in a neutral voice. He would not let this 'Suzuki Adelheid' get to him, not like Rokudo Mukuro. Even the mention of the illusionist's name spiked the raw emotion of anger built up inside the prefect. He wasn't going to be beaten up and humiliated ever again. Not in a million years and not in some alternate universe or dimension.

"Very well. I have come to inform you that your reception room now belongs to the Liquidation committee," Adelheid explained. Her tone irritated the prefect even more. She was acting as though she owned the place, and he was just some useless little herbivore. Acting all high and mighty was Hibari's job though he never gloated much about it. It was just something you knew once you laid eyes on him. He was and will always be the one in control.

"The Liquidation committee?" No, he wouldn't let his anger take over. He had to stay calm and collected. He glared at her, issuing for her to offer some sort of explanation.

"Yes. From here on, the order of this school will be protected not by the disciplinary committee of Namimori of which you are in charge of but by the Liquidation committee of Shimon. If you resist, I'll have to act accordingly like I have with your other members. I have already gotten their approval for my committee by the way." Adelheid rummaged through her pockets in her skirt and held out photos of the members of Hibari's disciplinary committee. Each one had a member defeated in more ways than one. A guy was tied upside down from a tree, some were beaten into submission, and a few more were in other awkward positions. None were hurt too badly, but still, they were in pretty bad shape. She pulled out some forms, all having signatures supposedly from the prefect's committee members allowing for the Liquidation committee to take over. Hibari smirked a bit, all anger gone out of his system.

Interesting.

"Wow. Looks like you wouldn't give up even if I rejected that proposal," he remarked. He looked over his shoulder to see the little bird, nicknamed by many of the students as Hibird, still sitting on said shoulder.

"Little one, I can't move very well because you're on my shoulder," he stated to the small animal. Hibird tilted its head, its small black bead-like eyes staring at Hibari's. The bird lifted its wings before flying off, singing Namimori Middle School's anthem. The little animal knew that Hibari needed some time and space to himself to fight this new 'herbivore,' so as to not be in the way, it flew off to who knows where.

Hibari turned to Adelheid, seeing that there was no longer any distractions or obstructions in the way and whipped out his tonfas from his sides, a signal that indicated a fight was about to begin. The girl smirked at him as she put the photos and forms away.

"Of course. I would use force to make you see my way." Weapons of her own, two fans, slipped out from under her skirt, and she caught them both in a deathly grip. Each was held tightly in her hands as she snapped them both open. She eyed the prefect, an opponent to be wary of and pointed teasingly at him with her fan. "Looks like you're in a bad mood."

"Your actions are intolerable, you're not in proper uniform, and you're delaying me from biting some herbivores to death." He smirked at her and announced his famous remark. His shoulders went back, making his jacket flutter up, and a deadly killing aura enveloped around the prefect. He raised both tonfas up. "I'll bite you to death."

"Be purified!" She ran at him, boots thumping loudly against the hard ground as she made her way towards the prefect. She swiped at him with one fan; he defended with a tonfa. The two exchanged blow after blow but were not able to injure one another. Pushing each other back with equal force, they danced across the roof in a mesmerizing display of metal meeting metal, strike for strike, hit for hit. Swing to the left, swing to the right, no matter how they attacked each other, they couldn't land a direct hit to one another. They didn't even begin to break a sweat.

The wind whipped around them. Their movements were so fast that your eyes couldn't keep up with them. Steps skipped around the air. Narrow misses and dodges were made as the attacks of each opponent ceased to end. As Adelheid twirled around to hit Hibari's side, the prefect sent a blow to her stomach. By chance, she had managed to block it with her fan, but the force from the attack made her skid back. This left a large gap between the two fighters.

A silent pause as the two eyed each other.

"That's another violation." The prefect swung his tonfa across his chest. "I'm the only one who can bring weapons to school," Hibari declared in a bored tone.

Adelheid swiped her fan out once more and rushed at Hibari. She frowned as her fan met against yet another sound of metal. She gritted her teeth. "It looks like I will have to get more serious," she muttered to herself.

N-X-N

A man stared at a group of men that were similarly dressed as him. The only difference was that the group's black suits were wrinkled and had burn marks visible on them. They were covered in ash and were currently bowing their heads in shame. This made the man slam his hands down on his desk as he abruptly stood up from his seat.

"You bunch of buffoons! How could you let him escape? Do you not know of the situation we're in right now?" His words were laced with irritation, making a few of the men grit their teeth, frustrated that they couldn't please their boss.

"I'm sorry, sir. We did not mean to take our eyes off him for a second," the head of the group spoke, looking directly into his boss's eyes. "We did not anticipate that he would use his sky flames on us upon exiting out of his room."

"And yet, you all weren't able to stop him? One single boy and a group of what? Thirty men couldn't stop him?" Their boss's eyes flared with anger as he walked around his desk and up to the one who had dared to bring him the bad news rather than any good news.

"But sir, he can't control his flames perfectly. We were lucky that he didn't do so much as burn us to the bone let alone make this whole mansion burn down," another man had joined in on the conversation, trying to defend everyone from receiving anymore insults. They tried their best to keep the boy in his room, but when he burst out of the room covered in flames, how were they supposed to react? They didn't think the boy would go so far as to use force to get out of his room!

"Excuses, excuses, that's all I ever hear from you people! You were to strictly follow my orders, but what do you go and do? You fail them! And now look at the mess you've made!" The boss walked right up to the leader of the group and gripped his collar so tight that his hand paled to a striking white. Some of the men panicked, but the leader held up his hand to calm them down. The leader remained calm and adjusted his glasses to take a good look at his boss before he spoke.

"Forgive me for saying this, sir, but please calm down. We will locate him as soon as possible. He could not have gotten far. Worst scenario would be that he entered onto the battlefield with our other men," he explained. The boss threw him to the ground all the while still fuming. A few of the men crowded around their fallen comrade, helping him to stand up.

"Well, what are you waiting for? If you have even the slightest idea of where he is then get out there and find him!" their boss spat out.

The men immediately straightened up at attention, but on the inside, they wanted to rip this person they called their 'boss' to shreds. Who was he to order them around like a bunch of dogs and then not even thank them when they achieved something worth thanking for? All their stupid boss did was sit back at the mansion and drown himself in luxury and women. His first wife was right to leave him for he was nothing but an imbecile. The only regret the woman ever had was having to leave her only son to live with her husband.

And what were they, the boss's subordinates, rewarded with? Just an endless batch of insults directed at them for the littlest things or about nothing at all. Their boss had so many tantrums and random outbursts in one day that you couldn't keep track, let alone count them. One time, their current boss got so angry at another boss during a dinner party that he threw a chair.

A chair. He threw a chair at a person just because that person took the last piece of his favorite meat from the table. You could probably guess what happened next. Brawls broke out among the mafia famiglias, as enemies and allies alike joined the fray to have an all-out battle royale. It started out with food being thrown about, and bottles of alcohol sailing through the air. Soon, curses erupted through the room, and fists were thrown in every direction, smacking peoples' faces and leaving many bruises. Then, weapons were drawn out as things got more exceedingly violent.

Boy, was that a long night to deal with. The good thing was that no one was killed, just had wounds that weren't really a threat to one's life. On the negative side, other famiglias had come to the decision not to invite their boss to a party lest they want a repeat of what had occurred.

Again, anger issues, right?

Because of those reasons, the men would rather serve under the next boss in line for their famiglia. At least he was thankful and treated everyone like they were a real family. At least he was more trustworthy then his father even though he caused trouble from time to time. That's why they still dealt with this boss. They were waiting for the next heir to take his place and make things right in their famiglia. Surely their patience will be rewarded in due time. Hopefully sometime soon if not now.

With one last look at their boss, they reluctantly answered back in unison before heading out to find their future boss.

"Yes, sir."

N-X-N

When was all this going to end? He was so sick and tired of this unnecessary ruckus that had been going on for the past few days. He could shoot himself right now, but he wouldn't. He just couldn't abandon his best friend in battle, and it wasn't like him at all to give up. Even if he needed sleep right now. Even if he was dead tired. Even if duty came first.

Wait, what was he talking about again?

As he nimbly approached behind an abandoned building, careful not to die along the way what with the rain of bullets aimed at him, he spotted a tinge of yellow in one window of the ground floor. Then, the color quickly disappeared. The man grumbled to himself, scratching his red hair while doing so and quickly ran over to where he knew the owner of the blonde hair was.

Why was he out here again? Oh yeah, he was trying to stop that Cavallone whatever Famiglia or something. He also needed to find his boss. Ugh, so sleepy. Find boss, get the heck out of here, and sleep. Yeah, that was a good plan.

The man peeked through the window and raised an eyebrow. Okay, he can check off 'finding the boss' off his list. He knocked against the glass twice before his boss popped up and unhinged the window.

"So this is where you've been hiding, Primo?" the redhead asked, irritation from the lack of sleep showing on his face.

"What took you so long to get here, G?" The blonde man chuckled nervously but was then silenced after the situation around them settled in. They couldn't talk so freely right now. He and the redhead had business to settle with the other famiglia.

"Sorry, Primo. There was a kid stranded out there." The redhead jabbed his thumb to the fog-covered battlefield. He watched as his boss carefully pried the window open to let him in. He settled beside the blonde underneath the window and heaved a heavy sigh. His boss closed the window, trying to keep the smoke from entering into the room. He plopped to the ground beside the redhead.

"I see. The child is safe, I hope?" He looked up to the ceiling and ran his hand through his golden locks as he asked G. So there were more children out in the battlefield? He was sure he had rounded up everyone in town. How could he even miss one?

"For now. He's with the flute freak and spoiled brat at the hideout. We should hurry up and deal with these guys though. They're such a pain." G lit up a cigarette and spied out the window. The shooting still didn't cease. If he knew any better, the enemy should have run out of ammo. After all, they were wasting it on shooting at nothing but the air and possibly their own people.

"It seems that they're not going to give up so soon," the Primo spoke softly, running his hand over his other gloved hand. His clear orange orbs landed on the Sky Vongola Ring, which shimmered a bit from the sunlight. All these battles he fought were just for this petty thing. To think, these Vongola rings were more of a curse than a blessing. What was Talbot thinking when he created them and freely gave them to his famiglia?

"Yeah." G threw his cigarette in front of him and stomped it with his foot. Can't have the building burn down, can we? "So what's the plan?"

"The men outside need to be taken care of," the Primo motioned towards a group of shadows in the fog, "but I think you already knew that." He sheepishly smiled. The enemy was getting closer to the building that the two were hiding in, so it would've been best to act now and not wait for them to come. "We'll have to take them out. Hopefully, they'll be what are left of the enemy famiglia."

"Got it. Be careful." G smirked. "I don't want to be the bringer of bad news and tell the other guardians that you happened to die out here."

The Primo nudged his storm guardian's arm with an annoyed look visible on his face.

"You think I'd die that easily?" The blonde folded his arms across his chest. G really shouldn't say things like that. He could jinx the poor blonde for all he knew! Last time G said he was going to catch a cold, he actually _caught _a cold!

"Well…" G looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. "Just don't make any stupid mistakes."

"You're one to talk." The Primo smirked in triumph when his best friend abruptly turned away with a huff.

The fellow Storm Guardian made tons of mistakes in the past. There was the time when the redhead had accidentally set fire to a house after smoking. G had been in a terrible mood that day after finishing his mission and aimlessly threw his cigarette at a house. Too bad the moment the lit cigarette hit the wooden wall, the said wall combusted into flames. The fire was thankfully put out before it could spread, but G did get a good scolding from the old lady that lived in that house.

And a good whack to the head with a broom.

"Tch, let's get this over with already." G stood up and lent a hand to the Primo. The shadows were looming closer as they could hear the voices become clearer with each second.

"Ready?" The blonde tilted his head as he grasped his best friend's hand, and stood up.

"Anytime. Are you?"

As soon as those words were uttered, the duo of the Sky and Storm smiled at each other and burst out of the worn out door to face their enemies, their red and orange flames becoming a blur as they sped out to battle.

At the sight of two oncoming flames, the men in black took aim at them. G loaded his gun with precise speed and dodged each flying bullet in a show of tumbling and swerving, almost as if he knew where the next bullet would hit. The enemy cursed, wondering why whenever a group of people were up against one person, they couldn't even land a shot or even leave a graze.

Unlike having two against one was unfair, it was like having one against many was unfair.

On the other hand, Primo fired up his Vongola I Gloves, which resembled much like Tsuna's Vongola Gloves, and cut through the air as he flew towards the people who would dare to harm his town. His pure orange flames powered his flight, and the enemy, not surprisingly, regretted ever nearing the building and tried to escape. How were they supposed to know they were actually going to go up against the Vongola Primo himself? How were they supposed to know that the building they were going to check out housed the Vongola Primo and his Storm Guardian?

It was no use.

The Vongola duo was coming at them within seconds. All they could do was shoot their way out and hope that they had enough luck to at least wound one of them. Too bad they weren't properly trained to handle situations like this.

Shots were fired in a symphony of bangs. Red and orange flames danced in the smoke, displaying a show of flying colors that even some of the enemies had to stop what they were doing to watch. The Vongola rarely showed their flames unless the situation was dire, so if they had to go to such lengths to use even a bit of their flames, it was worth watching even if the flames they were using were against them. The outcome of this battle was evident to both sides of the battle. Someone was going down.

And it wasn't going to be the Vongola.

The Storm and Sky together brought down a torrential assault, a deadly combination made from that of a boss and his right hand man. They were quite a force to be reckoned with and a spectacle to behold.

With ease, G had managed to dispatch all his bullets covered in storm flames to directly hit the enemies' guns. Those who were assaulted dropped their weapons from the shock, and their reflex to wave their hands around to loosen the strain inflicted cost them time. By the time the pain had somewhat subsided, they were met with the mercy of glowing orange flames knocking them out cold.

The men were taken down with no effort, as if they were a bunch of flies being swatted. Each fell to the ground unconscious or groaning out in pain from the endless array of attacks. One by one, they fell but were not killed. The fight continued on until finally, a small boy was left.

Wait a minute. Small boy?

A young boy, estimated at about the age of fifteen, with jet black hair was standing in front of the duo all the while trembling. Though he looked like any other kid born into a rich family what with the expensive suit he was wearing, he had a gun held up. Fear was evident in his gray eyes. He was struggling on who to shoot first. The redhead that looked like he desperately needed sleep or the composed blonde? They were both standing in front of him, so which one? Which one does he have to shoot? Or maybe he could make a run for it? They wouldn't hunt down a child, would they?

The boy had heard several rumors about the Vongola Famiglia. How they were growing strong in number and in alliances. He also heard that they could might as well take over the mafia world with a snap of their fingers because they had earned enough money and power to do so.

Of course with rumors, there's always a few that say the complete opposite or cause misunderstandings. Hearings of the Vongola doing shady business (shadier than what goes on in the mafia), perhaps doing human experiments or secretly harboring military secrets circulated around Italy. He even heard that they tested chemicals on children, too.

"Put your gun down, or I'll shoot." G lifted his own gun, not the least bit hesitant on shooting a child. He won't kill the boy, but he could wound him enough to wish that he were killed instead. If this kid was an ounce of a threat to the Primo, he would shoot no matter the circumstances.

The boy gulped and slowly backed away. Maybe they were going to experiment on his corpse. The poor kid could feel his hair stand up on end and sweat starting to from. Were the rumors really true?

The Primo saw that the boy was frightened, and G threatening him only made things worse. The blonde looked at the redhead and signaled to put his weapon down with a wave of his hand. The Storm Guardian reluctantly shifted his gun back into his holster, but he had his hand hovering over it if worse came to worst.

"What's a child like you doing here?" The Primo gave a soft smile, hoping that he wouldn't scare the child any further. The boy still held the gun firmly in his hands, now aiming at the Primo. G was about to intervene and get between the two, but he caught the Primo shaking his head at him to not do so.

"W-why should I t-tell you?" The black-haired child asked, teeth chattering in the process. He never meant for this to happen! He just wanted to get out of his bedroom to escape from the suffocating boredom! Not meet and engage in battle with the Vongola Famiglia!

The Primo let his orange flames disperse and went on to take off his Vongola I Gloves. He placed them in his pocket and innocently held his hands up to indicate that he was no longer armed. The boy suspiciously watched the blonde's actions, knowing that even though his sky flames could disappear for now, it could just as quickly reappear.

Besides, the teen knew from firsthand experience that sky flames could burn everything, including humans.

"We mean you no harm," the blonde announced. The kid slowly lowered his gun but still kept it in his grasp. Just in case something bad happened, he would be ready to aim and fire.

"A-aren't you going to kill me?" The child raised an eyebrow in question. How could he trust these people? His father had always taught him to not trust the Vongola, but these members showed him kindness. They spared his life unlike the rest of his famiglia members. No wait, maybe they were playing a trick on him since he was a child compared to them. They could secretly be planning on luring him with their generosity for all he knew! He would make out to be the perfect hostage if he were captured by these people!

"Only if you're a spy," G grumbled, but both the Primo and kid could hear his comment.

"G!" The blonde scolded his best friend and turned apologetically to the teen. "We don't kill people unless necessary, and we certainly don't go around killing children."

" Y-you must be lying! Father said the Vongola are a bunch of backstabbers and liars, a-and the Primo is just some dictator!" The poor teen backed away once more, finger close to pulling the trigger on the gun. That redhead had finally showed his true colors. Their acting wasn't going to fool him. They were going to kill him for sure, so why not try to take at least one of them down with him?

Alright, he just had to shoot, and this could all be over. He'll take a life as long as he himself gets to live. He wasn't afraid… definitely not afraid. He took a shaky breath. Even though he didn't have any experience or proper training in how to fire a gun, he could do it. He could make his first kill. He just needed to have confidence in himself and trust that his aim would be true.

Maybe.

"I must've heard wrong. What did you just say about the Vongola?" G whipped out his gun so fast that the boy didn't have enough time to blink or bat an eyelash.

He forgot he was dealing with the one who shot his gun with such accuracy and precision at his fellow famiglia members. An expert gunman.

The Storm Guardian was seeing red. This kid… who did he think he was to go and insult not only the Vongola Famiglia but also the Primo in his presence? Whoever this kid was, he was just asking to be murdered right on the spot by yours truly.

"G, please calm down. " The Primo looked at his friend and softened his gaze. He knew his Strom Guardian always took insults to the Vongola Famiglia to heart, but he had to make the redhead understand that not everyone thought of their famiglia as all good like they had hoped. The blonde had heard many of the rumors going around in the other towns of Italy, but how could he change what the townspeople thought of him and his guardians? Once the peoples' minds were set on something, it was all a matter of time until they thought of the rumor as the sole truth. He couldn't blame them nor say it was their fault because things took their own course.

That's how life was.

"Tch." The Strom Guardian kept his gun in the air. "I can't let this kid say whatever he likes about our famiglia. I just can't." G gritted his teeth, putting so much of his anger into his glare.

"G," the blonde began, but was stopped short when he saw the look on his guardian's face. It was no longer showing anger but had shifted to surprise. But at what?

"Great, _he's _here." G smacked his forehead when he saw a shadow emerging from the smoke behind the black-haired teen. The Primo saw it, too, and realized who the owner of that shadow was. Before the blonde could do so much as warn the young boy from stepping back any further, it was too late.

"What are you talking a—?" The boy followed the duo's gazes, but before he could even get a good look at what was behind him, a hand had struck at the back of his neck, rendering him unconscious. The gun dropped to the ground harmlessly, no longer imposing any danger, and the boy followed soon after. The Primo made a dash towards the boy to catch and keep him from falling face first into the unforgiving, cold ground. The blonde couldn't help but sigh out loud in relief that the boy had not been harmed any further.

"I'm sorry for his actions," the Primo whispered to the unconscious boy, even though he knew that the kid could no longer hear him. The blonde didn't think _he_ would show up at a time like this, but it did comfort him that _he_ had come back home safely.

In the mean time, G tailed behind Primo but couldn't help but glare at the perpetrator who had caused the black-haired teen to faint upon making contact. They had had the situation under control, and in his opinion, he and the Primo didn't need _his _help. If the kid had actually fired, or were about to, the redhead could just as quickly disarm the child and pin him down. But no, _he _had to come and knock the boy out beforehand right before the redhead could do so much as beat the kid to a pulp for every insult thrown at the Vongola Famiglia. Great, just great, there goes his stress reliever.

And man, did he want to sleep right now. He could hardly sleep a wink at night since the mafia always intervened right when he was about close his eyes. G already had enough with things not going his way. For once in his life, just once, he wished things could go his way. You know, wake up to a beautiful morning and just enjoy the peace without any missions or meetings springing up. Take a good smoke in the gardens around the Vongola Headquarters and maybe tour around town to take in the sights. But nope, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon as far as he could tell.

It's not like he was a fortune teller or seer of the future anyway.

Now the Vongola had to deal with this unconscious kid and the enemy famiglia, including all the repairs that had to be done to bring the town back into tip-top shape. Do you know how much paperwork that'll take? Oh, and he also had to talk to the Primo about that one brunet kid he had rescued on the battlefield. There was so much on G's plate right now that he just wanted to smash that plate into itty-bitty pieces and go straight to his comforting bed and wrap himself in its warm blankets, never to go out on a mission ever again.

But there was yet another thing to deal with: this _person_ who was at the fault of causing the boy they were conversing with to faint. _He_ wasn't supposed to come back until tomorrow, but it looks like the mission given to _him_ was completed faster than originally thought. The redhead stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked at the cause of more of his stress to come with a grimace.

"You didn't have to knock the kid out, you know."

-2-7-

_Living under strange circumstances, the thunder was heard._  
><em>A situation to cause confusion holds a harsh strike.<em>  
><em>Misunderstandings come, attracted to a lightning rod.<em>  
><em>Ponder through what is the truth,<em>  
><em>Oblivious to the many lies.<em>

* * *

><p><strong>*Target Acquired*<strong>

**Author's Note: **That's the end of the chapter for today! Reviews, whether they be made of love, hate, or something in between, are welcomed with open arms (but not required)!

Next chapter may take longer to upload since I only have the outline planned out. It may come by next week at the latest, but again, I have schoolwork I must attend to for the time being. Plus, it seems that I've gotten myself caught up in my new video game, Professor Layton and the Last Specter (DS), so expect a delay to come for Target 4.

By the way, can anyone guess who appeared at the end of the chapter? Oh, and I have a question for everyone, but you don't have to answer it if you don't want to. Here it is: Is the plural form of tonfa 'tonfa' or 'tonfas'? I tried looking it up on Google, but there were mixed responses; on Microsoft word, it says that 'tonfas' is incorrect. In your honest opinion or by personal preference, would you prefer I use 'tonfa' or 'tonfas' throughout the story? I don't mind either way, just wondering which one you like better. I used 'tonfa' in this chapter, but I can edit it to 'tonfas' if need be.

Thus, with a wave of my hand, I bid you all adieu until we meet again next time for the new target!

***Next Target: Trapped Forest***


End file.
